> "A real currency with a fiscal policy and the backing of a state that could raise loans would be able to ride out this insult. It'd be extraordinarily painful

> "A real currency with a fiscal policy and the backing of a state that could raise loans would be able to ride out this insult. It'd be extraordinarily painful, but it wouldn't devastate the currency in perpetuity." And of course, by "fiscal policy", we have come to agree that this means that banks can do what they want without any imposed limit and will always unconditionally be bailed out by the public (which mainly consists of people who are not only not benefiting from the banks' practices, but in fact are actively exploited by them for some ledger-juggling short term winnings; see the so called "housing bubble").