5-1 leveraged houses or 40-1 leveraged banks are a category in itself, we should leave them out.

5-1 leveraged means a 20 % down payment. That's actually the norm for responsible real-estate finance in most parts of The West(TM).

Of course, that leverage ratio goes down over time (assuming that you're not on an interest-only loan...).

Money is not dependent as is a part of the real economy become fluid, you can't give more value to one or the other.

Economies existed long before anything we would recognise as "money." And money existed long before anything we'd recognise as "banks."

Money is a way to decide who can exercise command over other people's labour. There are other ways that societies can decide that. Now, you can make a case that those are not as efficient, or as politically desirable. But that does not change the fact that money is a command and control structure, not a resource.

I doubt a billionnaire has all those money in bank accounts and on his very name. He'll tell you he only owns stock in successful companies. We can count the houses they own under their name though - and the size of those houses. Or the private jets and the Ferrraris. Mmm. Checking every citizen's fortune then, all the time, all through their life?... I dont say you're wrong, but thinking how to put it in practice - I don't see how any sensible person should own 20 million.

• Force all banks to give the tax authority access to each individual's balance (although not their transactions - that would be an invasion of privacy, and isn't needed anyway).

• Force stock exchanges to disclose the owners of stocks (they have to keep track of these things, otherwise they can't tell whether you actually have the stock you're trying to sell).

• Block transfers to countries that fail to comply with such rules. (You can do this simply by ruling that your own citizens are not under any obligation to honour any contract with companies incorporated in that country. Said country cannot prosecute on your jurisdiction, so their companies will never know whether they can expect contracts to be honoured, and consequently will not sign them. That would pretty much nuke Switzerland back to the stone age.)

• Keep an inventory of all factories and other means of production (this has to be done anyway, because it's a prerequisite for crafting sensible industrial policy).

• Keep an inventory of all real estate in the country (this has to be done anyway, in order to do city planning).

Motor vehicles and maritime vehicles are already registered as part of the licensing process, so they can be taxed the same way as factories and real estate. But actually, I don't really care if you have four yachts in the harbour (as long as you pay your fuel taxes...). That's not a problem. Control of seats in parliaments and control of the means of production are a problem.

Of course you can stash a billion € in the Bank of Serta, and there'd be bugger all the tax authorities could do about it without breaking into your home. But that has a negative net return on investment (due to inflation), so that problem goes away on its own.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.