the more mundane challenge.........

     Economies that are capable of sending men to the moon and producing goods and service of extraordinary complexity and innovation seem to struggle with the more mundane challenge of handling money and banking.  The frequency, and certainly severity, of crises has, if anything, increased rather than decreased over time.  In the heat of the crisis in October 2008, nation states took over responsibility for all the obligations and debts of the global banking system.  In terms of its balance sheet, the banking system had been virtually nationalize but without collective control over its operations.  That government rescue cannot conveniently be forgotten.  When push came to shove,  the very sector that had espoused the merits of market discipline was allowed to carry on only by dint of taxpayer support.  The creditworthiness of the state was put on the line, and in some cases, such as Iceland and Ireland, lost.  God may have created the universe, but we mortals created paper money and risky banks.  They are  man-made institutions, important sources of innovation, prosperity, and material progress, but also of greed, corruption, and crises.  For better or worse, they materially affect human welfare.

-Mervyn King,  The End of Alchemy:  Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy