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Other people's money
What’s in it for me? Get a fresh understanding of 
the modern financial sector.
If you follow the news, you will have noticed that 
the one thing that seems almost as prevalent 
and inevitable as war and violence are constant 
financial crises.
Most of us will remember the significant damage 
done by the world’s last major economic 
collapse, the 2008 financial crisis – but far fewer 
of us will understand why exactly it happened. 
Was it the fault of banks, businesses or 
governments?
The problem is, it all seems very complicated. 
What were the root causes of the financial 
crisis? How does the world of finance operate, 
anyway? These blinks set out to explain why the 

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financial sector is so important, and also 
dangerous.
In these blinks, you’ll learn

Why finance is so necessary;

What went wrong with the financial 
system; and

How the world of finance can reflect 
societal values again.
History shows that a healthy financial system 
can 
improve 
lives 
and 
strengthen 
economies.
These days, the global financial system has 
earned a reputation as one of the root causes of 
many of the world’s problems. But it didn’t start 
out this way.
Finance was originally intended to improve our 
quality of life by making it easier to conduct 
business.
The financial system allows us to buy the things 
we need to live comfortably and connects people 
who need money with those who can lend 
money. It also makes the insurance business 
possible, giving us the chance to protect 
ourselves from major disasters or emergencies, 
and allows us to organize our personal assets so 
that we can pass them along to subsequent 
generations.
Mortgages are another mutually beneficial part 
of finance. They make it possible for people to 
own property by taking out a loan, and 
subsequently making monthly payments with 
interest to the lender as a reward for supplying 
the loan.
On a larger scale, a healthy financial system can 
benefit society as a whole, which becomes clear 
when we look back at the progress we’ve made 
over several centuries.
It was a strong financial sector that allowed 
Britain and the Netherlands to become world 
powers in the early days of industrialization. As 
investments continue to pour into developing 
countries, it’s strong finances that allow this 
money to spread and improve the standard of 
living.
We can also see how the undynamic financial 
systems of communist countries lead to failure 
time and time again. In these centrally controlled 
systems, the money is unable to flow to 
businesses in need, which leads to fewer jobs 
and poor economic growth.
However, even though capitalist freedom has led 
to the kind of prosperous industrialization that 
became a cornerstone of modern society, not all 
of its financial innovations have been good. In 
fact, some of them haven’t been beneficial to us 
at all.
As it turns out, the financial industry has lost 
sight of what’s good and bad for the global 
population as a whole. We’ll get to the bottom of 
why this has happened in the blinks that follow.