I think it is more people who are ignorant about how monetary economics works. Try living in an economy without fractional reserve banking. You'll find credit is very hard to come by and interest rates are high.
Fractional reserve banking doesn't apply to the modern economy though, because we no longer use commodity-backed money where the economy is based on shuffling round physical tokens. Money is created by banks lending money when they update your balance.
> This article explains how the majority of money in the modern economy is created by commercial banks making loans.
> Money creation in practice differs from some popular misconceptions — banks do not act simply as intermediaries, lending out deposits that savers place with them, and nor do they ‘multiply up’ central bank money to create new loans and deposits.
> In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood: the principal way is through commercial banks making loans. Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.
That link is rather disturbing. They clearly state that money is created when a bank "makes a loan" and simultaneously creates a deposit in your account. In other words, they enter an amount in your account and simultaneously an IOU to themselves to redeem later.
