You're under absolutely no obligation to like it, but banks do provide essential services for a fee.

They're also (belatedly and sometimes decreasingly) heavily regulated in most of the world. What they do isn't always rent-seeking.

> banks do provide essential services for a fee. ... What they do isn't always rent-seeking.

Mob bosses own legitimate businesses. They're still crooks.

edit: Just FYI: I am not anti-bank. I am anti "capture 1/3 of all economic profits". No economy can survive that sort of parasitic activity in the long term, regardless of the intention behind it.

> but banks do provide essential services for a fee.

They charge you for not having enough money in your checking account, while using your money to give out loans and make money off of that. Basically charging you for being poor while making money off of your by fee and loaning your money to other people.

I'm old enough to remember they never charge a fee for not having enough money in the bank account. I left my bank for a credit union.

Also Well Fargo was caught recently in a dubious sketchy scheme.

Please note these activities are unrelated to high frequency trading.

HFT isn't essential services.

NYC seems to disagree (at least some market makers are currently considered essential businesses).

Not all banks do that

Most do. Interest rates are how those that have take from those that don't legally. Banks are just the executors of the idea.

It's a very complex systematic problem. I'm not saying burn all banks let's move to the jungle and eat coconuts.

I mean not all banks have minimum balances or any fees at all on checking accounts. Not sure what you mean by interest rates. If I have a savings account I'm getting paid interest. If I take a loan I'm paying interest in exchange for access to the capital. What exactly is the issue here?

You’d figure bank stocks would be performing better, considering they’re capturing so much purported profits.

Capturing other companies' profits is just step 1 in the plan to put as much of that money in your own pockets as possible.

If you're willing to "steal" from other companies, why wouldn't you also "steal" from the owners of your own company? Why pay a dividend when you can pay bonuses?

In many listed financial companies it is certain employees and management who do well financially, rather than the shareholders.

As Matt Levine puts it, investment banks are kind of like socialist collectives run for the benefits of their workers.

fair enough. Updated to specify the entire financial sector, not just banks.

App store takes 30% of revenue before you even start advertising..

The App store's main source of revenue isn't advertising, it's acting as a marketplace for apps. It also doesn't capture 30% of the entire economy that it operates in.