You could read The Creature from Jekyll Island, or for a more technical look, Rothbard's Mystery of Banking.
To sum up, credit functions as money, and thus licensed banks are effectively given the ability to print money. In theory its limited by the reserve ratio set by the Federal Reserve, but in truth since Banks earn money by lending it, they have an incentive to always lend out more than they should. Without central banks, most of modern warfare would become unfeasible as direct taxation/borrowing would be required rather than floating treasuries via a central bank.
Its a pretty complex topic, and how evil it is depends on your moral system. But, it is not an accident that all the major European powers instituted central banking prior to the Great War (WWI).
You could read The Creature from Jekyll Island, or for a more technical look, Rothbard's Mystery of Banking.
To sum up, credit functions as money, and thus licensed banks are effectively given the ability to print money. In theory its limited by the reserve ratio set by the Federal Reserve, but in truth since Banks earn money by lending it, they have an incentive to always lend out more than they should. Without central banks, most of modern warfare would become unfeasible as direct taxation/borrowing would be required rather than floating treasuries via a central bank.
Its a pretty complex topic, and how evil it is depends on your moral system. But, it is not an accident that all the major European powers instituted central banking prior to the Great War (WWI).