The Golden Rule
Those who have the gold make the rules. When you control capital, you set the terms of every deal.
From Becoming Your Own Banker, Chapter 9
The Golden Rule, as Nash frames it, isn't the Sunday school version. It's the financial version: those who have the gold make the rules. When you're the borrower, the lender dictates everything — the rate, the schedule, the penalties, the collateral. You have no leverage.
Most Americans spend their lives on the borrowing side. They need a bank's approval for a home, a lender's permission for a car, a credit card company's generosity to make purchases. Someone else always holds the power because someone else holds the capital.
IBC changes this fundamentally. With a well-capitalized banking system, you finance your own purchases. You don't need approval. You don't negotiate from weakness. You already have the capital, and you decide how to deploy it. As Nash pointed out — capital commands respect, and the person who controls it controls the deal.