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Oil and Water Do Not Mix, or: Aliud Est Credere, Aliud Deponere

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  • Philipp Bagus
  • David Howden
  • Amadeus Gabriel

Abstract

The financial crisis has led to new interest in the ethics of financial markets. In this article, we further the debate on the nature of banking contracts by showing that the fundamental subjective purposes of loan and deposit contracts are irreconcilable. Any resultant mixture of the two contracts is a legal aberration. We consider a mutual fund as an important and legitimate alternative to the common demand deposit to provide high liquidity and some yield without offering full availability of a nominal sum. Besides being a close substitute for how many deposit accounts function today, the mutual fund has the additional benefit of satisfying all legal and ethical requirements. Loan and investment contracts (such as money market mutual funds) allow for the “bank” to make use of their clients’ funds while the intents of money owners are clearly classified without running into legal or ethical problems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Bagus & David Howden & Amadeus Gabriel, 2015. "Oil and Water Do Not Mix, or: Aliud Est Credere, Aliud Deponere," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 197-206, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:128:y:2015:i:1:p:197-206
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2087-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bagus, Philipp & Howden, David, 2011. "Unanswered Quibbles with Fractional Reserve Free Banking," MPRA Paper 79594, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Leland Yeager, 2010. "Bank reserves: A dispute over words and classification," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 183-191, June.
    3. Philipp Bagus & David Howden & Walter Block, 2013. "Deposits, Loans, and Banking: Clarifying the Debate," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 627-644, July.
    4. Bagus, Philipp & Howden, David, 2010. "The Term Structure of Savings, the Yield Curve, and Maturity Mismatching," MPRA Paper 79592, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bagus, Philipp & Howden, David, 2010. "Fractional Reserve Banking: Some Quibbles," MPRA Paper 79590, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Glasner,David, 2005. "Free Banking and Monetary Reform," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521022514.
    7. Philipp Bagus & David Howden, 2016. "The economic and legal significance of “full” deposit availability," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 243-254, February.
    8. Jongchul Kim, 2011. "How modern banking originated: The London goldsmith-bankers' institutionalisation of trust," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(6), pages 939-959, October.
    9. William Barnett & Walter Block, 2011. "Rejoinder to Bagus and Howden on Borrowing Short and Lending Long," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 229-238, May.
    10. Philipp Bagus & David Howden, 2012. "The Continuing Continuum Problem of Deposits and Loans," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 295-300, March.
    11. Williams, Jeffrey C, 1984. "Fractional Reserve Banking in Grain," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16(4), pages 488-496, November.
    12. Philipp Bagus & David Howden, 2009. "The Legitimacy of Loan Maturity Mismatching: A Risky, but not Fraudulent, Undertaking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 399-406, December.
    13. Hoppe, Hans-Hermann, 1994. "How Is Fiat Money Possible?--or, the Devolution of Money and Credit," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 49-74.
    14. Nicolás Cachanosky, 2011. "A Comment on Barnett and Block on Time Deposit and Bagus and Howden on Loan Maturity Mismatching," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 219-221, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jesús Huerta de Soto & Antonio Sánchez-Bayón & Philipp Bagus, 2021. "Principles of Monetary & Financial Sustainability and Wellbeing in a Post-COVID-19 World: The Crisis and Its Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-11, April.
    2. Philipp Bagus & David Howden & Jesús Huerta de Soto Ballester, 2018. "Entrepreneurial Error Does Not Equal Market Failure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 433-441, May.
    3. Philipp Bagus & Amadeus Gabriel & David Howden, 2016. "Reassessing the Ethicality of Some Common Financial Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 471-480, July.
    4. Philipp Bagus & David Howden & Amadeus Gabriel, 2017. "The Hubris of Hybrids," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 373-382, October.
    5. Anthony Evans, 2015. "What is the Latin for ‘Mayonnaise’? A Response to Bagus, Howden and Gabriel," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 619-623, October.
    6. David Howden & Amadeus Gabriel, 2015. "The Interest Rate Brake on Maturity Transformation," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(4), pages 1100-1111, October.
    7. Philipp Bagus & Amadeus Gabriel & David Howden, 2018. "On the Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Legitimate Banking Contracts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 669-678, February.
    8. Laura Davidson, 2015. "Ethical Differences Between Loan Maturity Mismatching and Fractional Reserve Banking: A Natural Law Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 9-18, September.
    9. Philipp Bagus & David Howden, 2023. "Consumer rights and banking contracts," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 105-114, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fractional-reserve banking; Maturity mismatching; Fraud; Legal purpose; Deposit; Loans;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law
    • K12 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Contract Law
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law

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