The most underreported effort to widen the gap between rich and poor is the effort to keep interest rates low. Most of us think of this as a way to buy more that we couldn’t afford below. But what it really does is force us out of passbook savings accounts which used to be a reliable way to grow wealth with almost no risk.
Not only did that force a huge amount of people into the stock market, thereby increasing stock prices (and who owns the most stock?), but it also forced banks to find other ways to finance their operations since the spread between loans and savings was shrunk to nearly nothing.
And why must interest rates be kept low? Imagine what happens tomorrow if the fedgov suddenly has to start paying real interest to finance $30T (or whatever it is) of debt.
As you said, Freep ‘em all. But not the banks. They’re just caught in the crossfire.
Yes and no. It’s true that banks are “caught in the crossfire,” but they’re hand-in-glove with the regulators and legislators, too. You don’t see many bank CEOs living in trailer parks.