Daily reminder that bank runs wouldn't be a thing if we did duration matching, forbidding banks from borrowing short and lending long. As always, the underlying problem in banking is that the banks are lying, telling two or more people they own the same dollar at the same point in time. If they locked deposits for a period of time they could safely (and morally) loan that money out without lying, and, in fact, there…
I mean, yes, that is a problem, but it’s also their only benefit. The entire reason banks came into existence is to multiply the availability of currency (i.e. fractional reserve).
I thought they came into existence, atleast initially, purely for the secure storage of funds.