If bank lending causes the money supply to grow... then are loans really someone else's money? Obviously they can't be.
Obviously it
can be and
is true. This is exactly what fractional reserve banking is. This is how regular banks "create" money. The depositor still believes that the full amount of their deposit is sitting in their bank account while someone who has a loan out thinks they have that money. The overlap is "new money" because they obviously both can't own the same exact funds, yet theoretically that is exactly what is happening. Those "created" dollars never actually come into existence, though, they only exist on paper.
This is why runs on banks is such bad news. If everyone runs and withdraws all of their money at once from a bank, the bank doesn't have all of those funds because a very large portion is out on loan at any given time.
Runs on the bank are only bad news because of rules that banks impose on themselves. Lending and "banking" could be two totally separate institutions but they aren't because of the convoluted self imposed rules banks put on themselves to masquerade the fact that they essentially create money from nothing and charge interest on it.
If person A's money is lent to person B... and person B's money is lent to C... and person C's money is lent to D and so on... and the money supply expands.... and they can all essentially "demand deposit" and spend their money at will... then is person A's money really being lent? IF a = b and b =c and c = d then a = d. So person D's money is actually person A's.. And person C's money is also A's. ANd person B's money is also A's. If money is lent out multiple times and the total net effect of this is a growth in the money supply which means......... that if there is more money after a loan is created, then new money had to have been created. New money cannot also be older money. Someone's deposit is used as a basis for making another loan.. but the total net effect of what is going on is essentially new money is being created.
Some of these self imposed rules I am talking about are reserves themselves. The one redeeming value they have is that they are essentially one way the banks use to control the money supply itself. But they are a self imposed rule. If banks didn't have a reserve ratio then they would never have "bank runs" because meeting demands could be done without any problem. With the flick of a pen (or keystroke).
If the banking system was honest it wouldn't be as convoluted as it is. There wouldn't be reserves or reserve ratios. As soon as the Federal reserve deposits money and creates reserves at member banks you can calculate from that deposit how much theoretical money can be created knowing the theoretical maximum reserve ratios. So you don't need reserves to constrain the money supply. You could do the same thing through a more direct method.
Here is how an honest banking system would work:
For the public sector (the government), Instead of delegating the power to create money to some cabal (like the Federal reserve) instead you keep the power and create it yourself. You don't need to pay interest to yourself #1. #2...... you tax back what you create. If you tax back what you create then inflation is impossible. That's it. Compared to what we have now that is incredibly simple............ and honest. Politicians, however, would not like the idea of only being able to spend what they can directly tax since right now they spend so so much through inflationary (hidden) means.
For the private sector... if people were free to chose then they would pick something honest over something dishonest automatically. Which is probably why bitcoin would win. Or a fully backed currency with no "fractional reserve" part. But... many people ascribe our system of credit to be something worthwhile. Maybe it's not but here is how an honest credit system would work that could possibly compete with bitcoin or a fully backed currency. If you design a debt based credit system then money is created through loans. What keeps loans from being inflationary is mostly that they are paid back. When money is paid back , the principal is destroyed and the interest is taken as a service fee. An honest system would take a service fee as a service fee. Also..... The amount of total money can be directly controlled. The question on inflation in such a system is important... and the more important question than "how much money " should be created is the length of loans themselves. A 1 minute loan ... is not inflationary at all. A 1 million year loan is entirely inflationary. To limit inflation in such a system you don't need to charge interest on loans. You need to give shorter loans.
Congratulations, in a very long post you have convinced me that you have no idea what you're talking about, and that I'll probably never believe otherwise. If you take out the fractional reserve method, there is no bank lending. There is no bank lending, because there's no capital to do it with, since you have to have 100% on hand at all times. Good luck buying a car. In order to finance any sort of credit or loan we now resort to finding loan sharks who like to break kneecaps if you're a dollar late on your payment instead of paying a little extra.
Are you insane? Do you even know what the word economics is? Inflation.. Impossible? This conversation should end right here. More people are added to the system every day, without increasing the money supply ever you actually would create deflation as the available money supply gets spread thinner and thinner among an ever increasing population. Deflation is also bad.
You also don't understand how lending works. Theoretical new money is created through lending, not actual new money. If person A, B, C, and D are the only depositors at a bank, and they all have loans out for the total value of the bank, then if they were to all demand their deposited money without paying off any of the loans then the bank would have a negative net worth of the entire bank. The bank lends people's money out to others while still acknowledging that the money lent mostly belongs to others. If the depositors of a bank demand their money, they are contractually and legally obligated to provide it by all means necessary including liquidating the bank and all real assets it holds. As long as loans are out, and everyone isn't demanding their money at the same time, there is extra money in the system only on paper because it is double counted by both the person who received a loan, and the person who's funds were used to fund the loan. Person A's money above the reserve amount is not lent out multiple times. It is lent out once. A bank can not lend more than it currently has above reserves (unless it borrows this money from other banks). It cannot lend the same funds out once. Also, when a person takes out a loan, that is not THEIR money. It is the bank's money, and by extension the depositor's money.
Your entire theory of economics and finance is wrong, not only is it wrong but it is bad, and you should feel bad. Take a class.
P.S. money and banking will ALWAYS be convoluted. No matter how honest it is. Just look around you, even bitcoin has its issues when it comes to security, processing, dishonest individuals, unpaid loans, etc.