Not all banks. They served a purpose, once upon a time.

Once upon a time, banks were meant to be strongholds; safeguarding the wealth of those who trusted the banker enough to keep their material wealth in one of the banker's safes. A small fee would go into the pockets of the bankers.

Then, banks would survive by lending out the money they'd been given.. The bankers would loan you money at an interest. There's the beginning of the rot. See, interest demands you pay back more than you loaned. As long as there's real money, it's not nice but meh. You might be able to earn enough money to repay your debt and the interest.

However, nowadays banks create money out of thin air by coloring paper and calling ir money on the one hand, and adding a few ones and zeros on a digital bank-account on the other hand. You see, the Federal Reserve as well as the ECB are (semi) privately owned banks who charge the governments interest on the money they borrow. But the Fed and ECB do not make money with inherent value (ever since we lost the gold-standard, money isn't linked up to anything but debt), but rather take paper; color the paper, cut the paper and then say: this is now money. Oh, and you need to pay us 10% extra of what you just borrowed, just because we took, colored and cut some paper which we say is money.

The idea of fractional reserve banking (look it up if you don't know what it is: there's a couple of great Youtube-vids which'll explain it like you're 5) has been the cause of a financial hyperbubble: when 1 dollar in reality equals 9 dollars in virtual reality, but your debt stays real, you've got a problem.

By no means am I religious man but I do understand the story of why Christ, the prince of peace, took to beating the money-lenders out of the temple.

If you want banks with a minimum of reliability and have it function as a tool rather than as the bloodsucking parasite it has become, consider breaking up the banks as they are now, forbid fractinoal reserve lending, re-instate Glass-Steagal and consider that 'Too Big To Fail' really means 'Too Big To Exist'.

I'll have my answer off the air, Art.