The greatest Illusion of mankind : A critical review of the financialsystem

Abstract: “Money is controlled by a market; I trust the government has control. I do not think you are right, of course the government has the control and they would not do like this, it cannot be true that my savings is not real, I work hard for them! But just stop it I just do not want to make these kinds of questions to myself; I just need a house, go traveling and have some fun, I do not want to go around and worrying”.(Anonym comment) This comment by a person with university degree in business and middle manager at one of the larger Swedish companies, when discussing the thesis you are about to read, without the person having reading it in advance, actually seems representative for the overall knowledge about what is really going on in the financial system today and the willingness of people question it. The knowledge you will obtain and the result you will experience after finished your reading is challenges of basic “taken for granted assumptions” of businessmen, academics or people in general within the society today, for the purpose of understanding the system and its role in society. You will experience a unique critical presentation of the financial system today, and also discover that this knowledge about the financial system is not a knowledge the majority should possess, even one of the important principles of the system might be just that the majority do not possess this knowledge. The financial system, when the time of writing, suffer from large global problems. This thesis is examining the foundation of the system, such as the concept of money, and the forces and principles within the system. The research goes from how the system has developed historically to how it is constructed and maneuvered today. Money is described as trading tools which value is only an illusion of value for persons in the society. The financial system is further broken down into three different subsystems in order to understand the term financial system. From the perspective of the three subsystems the financial system is described as a deceiving system fooling the participants that they possess value in forms of bank notes and coins. Further the thesis shifts the focus to how the system looks today by categorizing actors and tools in the system, how state authorities is trying to maneuver the system and create a network model of the Swedish financial system, the conclusion became that no one can escape the system and do not have a chance not to enter the system, the chapter also reveals how no one really has the power to control and influence the system. Finally the thesis provides foundations for the reader to make his own opinion if the gambling within the system has been taken to long, if the financial system could be labeled as a pyramid scheme, if the system has provided more benefits than drawbacks to society and finally some speculation in consequences if the system would crash and speculation of how historians in the future would describe the present version of the financial system. But before starting reading, think about the message from the director Alan Alda: “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in” (Citation: Alan Alda, Quoteland, n.d)