Shareholders don't require constant profit growth.  

Eh?

"Shareholder Value" is part of the religion. You tell me how long the average CEO would last if his shareholders did not see profit growth?

HiD:

Capital requirements are not trivial.  You only look at liquidity instead of the whole balance sheet.  But that fits your religious view of usury.  If capital requirements were trivial, how come the banking system has lost roughly 150 to $500 Billion dollars?  Should have been pocket change no?

Bank capital requirements are a maximimum of 8%.  

Trivial.

The balance of 92% of credit = money created on the back of this capital is backed by nothing other than government fiat and trust. That is a matter of assets and liabilities and therefore a balance sheet question, not just a liquidity question.

As for your use of the phrase "religious view of usury" I would neither dream of using the word usury nor are any of my views "religious". "Ethical" - well I hope so - but "religious", never.

I believe that equitable sharing of risk and reward is both optimal and ethical.

Secured Debt does not share risk and reward equitably IMHO, and neither does the legal construct known as the Joint Stock Limited Liability Company.

The conflicted combination of Debt and Equity which are the "Twin Peaks" of finance capital are sub optimal, I believe and will come to be replaced by something better.

You have your set of values and I have mine.

End of story.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson