I am not much of an implementers, but if we wanted to do something to target and reform our screwed up society, I have an idea. The great vulnerability of our capitalist culture, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe, is fractional reserve banking.

For those that don’t know, a quick summary is that any given bank only has to keep a small percentage of their deposits on hand. This allows them to invest other people’s money for fun and profit. Many resources explain the concept and its evils in far more detail than I can get into here.

So how is this an exploitable weakness? Well, if you have seen It’s a Wonderful Life, you probably already know. Because banks only hold a fraction of the reserves needed to cover their depositors’ accounts, they are vulnerable to “runs.” A run on a bank happens when the customers lose confidence that the bank will be able to cover their deposits and rush to withdraw their money before the bank runs out of money (FDIC insurance was setup to protect depositors from this phenomenon).

How do we use this to fight the bankstas? We deliberately cause runs on banks. Of we can get enough people to withdraw their money from a bank, the bank won’t be able to return people’s money to them. Even if you don’t have an account with the target bank, you can help by spreading fear (Big Bank is the targetof an internet attack, ge yourmoneyout before they collapse - you don’t want to have to wait for the FDIC to give you your money, do you?) An additional collateral attack than can be made is to simply not pay any debts (mortgages, credit cards, etc) owed to that same bank. The non-payments will accelerate the time frame for which the bank will run out of money.

Also, if you short the bank’s stock before the run or when it starts, you can profit from the banks collapse.

The real key to the plan (the part I haven’t figured out yet) is how do we get enough people to panic over a particular bank to get the party started. Subsequent banks should be easier after the first.

Be aware that some states have laws that make inciting a run on a bank illegal, although the constitutionality of such laws is still up for debate. Truth is a defense to libel, so if there is an attempt to sue for that, you get to conduct in depth discovery on the financial condition of the bank (just how bad are all of those loans and derivative instruments they hold? How low is their cash in hand compared to their depositors receipts?)