Re:Some young people are buying houses with friends
by mattgibson on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @02:27PM
(#19321827)
This appears to no longer be true: http://gregpytel.blogspot.com/2009/04/largest-heist-in-histo...
By financialising the mortgages and other loans, the banks can now treat them as if they were lendable cash. A bit like they can treat gold bullion like cash.
That is a significant misunderstanding of fractional reserve banking. Banks can only lend money they have, i.e. that customers have deposited. They can't just invent money to lend. So, a bank with $100,000 in cash can only make loans totaling $90,000 with it (assuming a 10% reserve requirement).