Banking is a good racket. They can take $1,000 off you and invest it in, say, gold. With 10% inflation over the year you can go back to the bank and take out your $1,000. The bank sells its bar of gold for, $1,100, with inflation, gives you your $1,000 and pockets the change.

Second ploy: Imagine you had a piece of land near an airport and you made it into a long-stay car park. You could charge people for leaving their cars there, often for some weeks. Noticing that you always had a large stock of vehicles on hand, you could also run a car hire business. You could hire out those cars, without the express permission of the owners, and make money out of it.

Most would think that was sneaky at best and downright illegal at worst but that is effectively how banks work. They hire out your money and, unlike cars, they hire out the same money several times and make money from each instance.

If it all collapses and the owners want their cars all back at the same time you go to the government for a bail-out!