But they, too, enjoyed seigniorage income that let them profit from a tightly controlled interest rate and high economic growth environment.

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As I explained in a book I co-authored some time ago, in an environment like this bankers have grown up as abacus bankers, record keepers of money flows who derive income from seigniorage, from the passive creation of money through interest bearing-loans and government-backed securities rather than from true banking, and from active risk management.

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