> ...which means we don't even need any empirical evidence to say that banks are different and unique from non-bank entities!

That's correct, and I said so in the article. I said that (although there is no empirical evidence) the underlying claim is true on a technicality.

>> Werner claimed to have empirical evidence for this.

> No, he doesn't. He claims that he has empirical evidence for banks creating money out of thin air, nothing more.

Here is a direct quote from Werner's paper: "We now know, based on empirical evidence, why banks are different, indeed unique … and different from both non-bank financial institutions and corporations: it is because they can individually create money out of nothing."

When Werner claims to have empirical evidence that banks possess a unique ability to create money out of nothing, he is technically making 4 claims:

1. Banks possess said ability

2. Non-banks do not possess said ability

3. Empirical evidence shown for claim 1

4. Empirical evidence shown for claim 2

Claim 4 ("empirical evidence shown for claim 2") is patently false.