Epilogue: Twilight of the Gods of Finance

Abstract

The book has argued that the current financial markets we have are the creations of governments and society. They have overreached their original purpose, to efficiently invest the surplus of the economy; this function is only a minor sideshow to the main activity of extracting rent from the rest of the economy. The impact on society and the environment is corrosive; the financial system causes inequality and debt, encourages short-term behaviour and is a block to how we need to transform the economy to avoid impending environmental and societal crisis. As government and society created this system, they have every right to take it apart and set up a financial system which does what society wants and needs.