Interest on Nothing:   One of the greatest cons of all  time is lending someone something you don't have and charging them money for its use.   You can't lend someone your car or your bicycle if you don't have a car or a bicycle to loan.   But if you're a banker, you can loan non-existent money to your customers and charge them interest on the loan.   The scam is called  "Fractional Reserve Lending."   

Here's how it works:   According to present banking laws, it's perfectly legal  for a bank to lend ten times as much money as it holds as assets.   For example, when Customer Joe deposits a thousand dollars in the Xyzz Bank,  then Xyzz Bank can legally lend Customer You  ten thousand dollars.   Even though the bank doesn't have nine thousand dollars of that money to loan, the bank writes you a check for ten thousand dollars.   And you pay the bank interest on the full ten thousand dollars.   

Think about this for a moment.   Consider that credit card from your friendly bank on which you are paying anywhere up to thirty percent interest.   Guess where the money is coming from on which you are paying all that interest?   You guessed it:  from nowhere  --  from nothing -- from make-believe money. ² .    

And the scam is actually much worse than what I've just told you.   The initial loans are compounded by the borrowed money being placed in another bank and that bank lending another ten time the money deposited.   So nothing is also the basis for the next level of loan; only this time the second bank is loaning ten time ten thousand dollars or one-hundred thousand dollars.   And the cycle continues, bank after bank --  all based on one single deposit of only one thousand dollars.

Then to top it off, the federal government comes along and lends the banks non-existent money that it borrows from the very-real Federal Reserve.    The Federal Reserve doesn't actually  have the money to loan so it lends make-believe money to the government.   Then the Federal Reserve charges the government interest on this make-believe money and your tax dollars pay the interest to the Federal Reserve.     Sounds a bit confusing!  Well it is, but actually, if you just look at the basics it's quite simple:   
YOU ARE GETTING SCREWED!

Fractional Reserves  from an Accountant's Perspective:   If you'd like to read about  Fractional Reserves  from a financial professional's perspective, readers are directed to the Lew Rockwell website.   The address is: 

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/frb.html ²     This site is just one among many.   Surf the web and find out for yourself.