Why Do We Need Banks?

Today Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was pleading for more money. He said banks need more capital if the economy is to recover.

Why do we need banks? What's their value-added? Let them fail. They use other peoples assets and skim more than their fair share for themselves. So why not eliminate these bad managers and their stockholders who can't be trusted and let people be responsible for their own assets? I'm sure people can more carefully protect their assets than the over-paid predators that run our banks. Individuals can loan people money and collect interest just as easily as a bank can. And if they can't, then that's their own problem.

There is way too much financial linkage between people. By definition that linkage grows till it fails because of it's unwieldly size. Time for a new paradigm. I suggest a barter system. Let's get rid of the parasites like the greasers in government and Wall Street that script Bernanke's message.