[Vintage Freeper]

"Isn't any and all credit really the fiat creation of wealth based upon a fractional reserve of something?"

Can we quit pretending that all credit is evil?

In general, credit is not a bad thing when used for self-liquidating productive activities. Credit for consumption is not recommended. Credit expansions are simply economic errors.

Your questions are important and deserve proper more detailed answers, and and here.

[the invisib1e hand]

thanks. the question was rhetorical, but I still think link 1 was worthwhile, link 2 is for later.

Worthwhile, but not the end-all-be-all of the argument. Laissez-faire capitalism is an ideal Ideals break down in the real world. Not that I am not arguing against free market -- nothing could make me do that. Only that laissez-faire is an ideal -- a mirage, and in the real world, exploitable and ultimately unworkable, as is any ideal.

w/r/t to link 1, it is a nice exposition of common sense. It was summed up by the non-formally educated traders on Wall Street generations ago: Good money drives out bad.

[the invisib1e hand]

Not that I am not

Can I buy an "e"? S/b "NoteE that I am not..."