Fractional Reserve Lending

[Aractus]

100% reserve banking would prevent banks from lending money.

Incorrect, it would mean they would only be able to lend you their money or the money they have from investors. Under 100% reserve banking, let's say I loan the bank my $20,000 - they can then loan that same $20,000 to someone else who wants to borrow it.

I'm not at all suggesting a return to the gold standard - that's even worse because it enriches the rich even more (since they're the ones with the gold already, and gold is a scarce commodity). What I'm saying is it should be backed by "real money" - i.e. currency issued by a sovereign State (or in the case of Europe, horrible paper money issued by the EU).

Let me put this into another context people might understand. Let's say I amass a wealth of $10 million. I then open the Aractus Bank. I then create $77 million in loans - I've just created $77 million and put it into the economy, and the only place that 77 million exists is in the numbers I put into my customer's bank accounts so they can pay another bank this fake money I just created out of thin air, and then I can hold the customer's debt and charge them interest. All the while I still have my $10 million in currency.