Yes, there's a lot of jabbering gibberish on YouTube and Facebook. At least some of the jabberers have greed as their excuse: they want you to buy over-priced gold, or invest in their Crypto scam. When a YouTube tells you the price of butter a century ago, that's the signal to click the 'Close Tab' icon.
But it is true that the global economy is very dependent on the modern financial system; and that the financial system has recently been creating money at an unprecedented rate. Whether this is good or bad is less clear.
Second, banks do not print money.
They certainly DO create money. And, if checkbooks and traveler's checks are "money" they actually print it as well. The financial system helped inflate real estate prices under Bush-43, and mortgages could be used as collateral for further lending and new "money."
But banks operate in concert with actions and regulations of government and central banks. Since the housing bubble burst in 2008, the FRB has been buying banks' assets; this allowed the banks to make new loans and create new "money." It's irrelevant whether you deem that money to be created by the central bank or private banks. We should be grateful (or hopeful) that the central bank acts in the public interest.
Many trillions of dollars of new money have been created this way by the world's central banks during the 21st century,
and this has been responsible for ongoing prosperity. If it seems wrong or corrupt, know that you might not have a job right now were it not for this money creation.
But this debt bubble is not an unmixed blessing. The Fed has announced that to fight inflation it will begin selling some of the trillions of dollars in assets on its books. This will be fun to watch!
The system has to collapse! It has, it will again. What is the solution again? Or is this CT-Boner stuff?
Not sure what the solution is.
So you just like complaining then?
I do not think it wrong to point out a problem even if no obvious solution presents. Experts are certainly aware that the financial system is in uncharted waters with no clear path forward. I think my own metaphor is apt: The FRB is now trying to navigate its vessel (the economy) between the hazards of Scylla and Charybdis. Let's wish them luck!
. . .
Yes, we've seen how well gold and silver have worked. Like for real. Check up on 19th Century economy, bank panics, the attempt to corner the gold market 1869.
Using precious metal as money worked reasonably well for millennia, at least while governments were too weak and disorganized to institute successful fiat currencies like we have today.
The Panic of 1869 was interesting. Jay Gould — sometimes considered the 23rd most wealthy person in all of history — was counting on the connivance of President Grant's unscrupulous brother-in-law, Abel Corbin. (The U.S. Treasury had far more gold than Mr. Gould.) Fortunately Corbin's brother-in-law awoke from his stupor long enough to order Treasury to buy greenbacks in New York City, thereby putting a stop to Gould's adventure.
We should thank our lucky stars that the Kushner brothers simply lacked the intelligence or imagination of Jay Gould during the recent Reign of Corruption and Stupidity.
I think economic predictions are about 50/50.
Occasionally somebody gets it right, but there is no way to accurately predict the economy in nay detail.
Most prognosticators agree that bubbles WILL burst. The uncertainty is about WHEN.