* From: Michael Perelman
Charles, if you want to understand the banking system, I think you might want to look in another direction. Thanks now make their money from activities that most people would not traditionally associate with banking. Fees are now central. Not just your for your overdrawn check, but from organizing takeovers and mergers and the like. Nomi Prins's book clearly shows how banks are losing ground to companies like Goldman Sachs. The private equity groups that are taking over your Detroit companies are much more important than the banks, except for banks like Citicorp, which are really not banks anymore, but rather financial conglomerates. So maybe we could drop Gesell and look more deeply into finance capital. ^^^^^^^^^ CB: What is at the next level of depth on finance capital ? Does a private equity group make money by collecting interest ? Are mortgages a big part of how banks ( or finance companies, whatever) make their money ? Does the finance sector dominate the economy today in a way that did not in the past ?
