Let's say I have an I.O.U from a hobo for a million dollars. Does that make me a millionaire? Obviously not. Ok, so let's say I have an I.O.U from someone else who works at Burger King for a million dollars, and this burger flipper has an I.O.U. from a hobo also for a million dollars. Does THAT make me a millionaire? No. But what if I have an I.O.U. for a million bucks from Mr. Monopoly who has $500,000 in cash, two million in debt outstanding and a bunch of I.O.Us from hobos on his asset ledger. Does THAT make me a millionaire? um, what do you think?
So do you call that half a mil that Mr. Monopoly has "excess reserves"??
I'm using hyperbole here to make a point. Ultimately, the health of the economy is not Wall Street or even the nice end of Main Street. It's some schmoes who work at the factories, refineries and offices with zero equity mortgages, 72 month car loans and a stack of credit cards. When those guys start to miss payments, the dominoes start falling. It's what happened in 2008. It's what's happening now. The interest the central banks like the FED pay on reserves is It doesn't make them solvent. It doesn't make them profitable. It makes them undead zombies going through the motions.
Not sure if you are addressing me in this post, but if so - ONE MORE TIME: I AM NOT ARGUING THAT THE ECONOMY OR BANKS ARE SOUND. I just made a statement about banks and reserves, which just happened to involve a correction to something you got wrong. End of story.
One thing seems certain: at least one of us does have a problem admitting he was wrong.