DONATE

The Changing World Economy

Understanding how the world economy works will be the key to forming a just and sustainable future.

The Changing World Economy

Marinus van Reymerswaele

Trust, Faith and Confidence–Value and the Role of Money

For most of human existence, interchange has been governed by social reciprocity, our sense of obligation to be helpful, fair, and just according to tradition. So how did money – originally invented as a mere token of social obligation – get confused with true wealth and become the end in itself?

Risk, Gambling, and Financialization

Since 1970, the financial sector has increasingly turned away from the financing of industry and commerce and concentrated instead on the business of making money from money – the process of financialization – resulting in new ways to extract money without adding value to the rest of the economy.

Aid: Ending Global Poverty

Growth of average incomes globally has resulted in a stunning decline in abject poverty. Yet more than a third of the world’s population – some 2.2 billion people – live on less than $2 a day, many without access to clean water, electricity, sanitation, and basic protection of the law. And the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. What can be learned from the successes and failures of the West’s $2.3 trillion aid investment over the past 50 years? What are the most promising solutions? And where do we go from here?

Forgiveness of Debt and the Creation of Money

For millennia it was a common practice to wipe out personal debts from time to time and begin social relations anew. But such a thing would be far more difficult today, in an economy driven by debt, rather than earnings, where even bankers and economists disagree on how money is created.
Marinus van Reymerswaele

Trust, Faith and Confidence–Value and the Role of Money

For most of human existence, interchange has been governed by social reciprocity, our sense of obligation to be helpful, fair, and just according to tradition. So how did money – originally invented as a mere token of social obligation – get confused with true wealth and become the end in itself?

Risk, Gambling, and Financialization

Since 1970, the financial sector has increasingly turned away from the financing of industry and commerce and concentrated instead on the business of making money from money – the process of financialization – resulting in new ways to extract money without adding value to the rest of the economy.

Aid: Ending Global Poverty

Growth of average incomes globally has resulted in a stunning decline in abject poverty. Yet more than a third of the world’s population – some 2.2 billion people – live on less than $2 a day, many without access to clean water, electricity, sanitation, and basic protection of the law. And the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. What can be learned from the successes and failures of the West’s $2.3 trillion aid investment over the past 50 years? What are the most promising solutions? And where do we go from here?

Forgiveness of Debt and the Creation of Money

For millennia it was a common practice to wipe out personal debts from time to time and begin social relations anew. But such a thing would be far more difficult today, in an economy driven by debt, rather than earnings, where even bankers and economists disagree on how money is created.

Further Reading

External Stories and Videos

Our Broken Economy, in One Simple Chart

Our Broken Economy, in One Simple Chart

David Leonhard, New York Times

Three leading economists provide a dramatic look at the skyrocketing income growth of the 0.01% very rich vs. all other Americans over the past 34 years.

Time to Care

Time to Care

Oxfam Report to the 2020 World Economic Forum

The heavy and unequal responsibility of care work perpetuates gender and economic inequalities. This has to change.

Public Good or Private Wealth

Public Good or Private Wealth

Oxfam Report to the 2019 World Economic Forum

“The gap between rich and poor is pulling us apart. It stops us from beating poverty and achieving equality between women and men. Yet most of our political leaders are failing to reduce this dangerous divide. It does not have to be this way. Inequality is not inevitable – it is a political choice. Concrete steps can be taken to reduce it.”

Cash, Food and Health Care All Help the Poor, but Something’s Still Missing

Cash, Food and Health Care All Help the Poor, but Something’s Still Missing

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

In a remote village in Paraguay, indigenous people are gaining hope and leaving poverty. The approach would work in rich nations, too.

← Back to Home

Recommended Books


Facebook X-twitter Linkedin Instagram

Email: [email protected]

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

Sign-up to receive updates and announcements related to The Human Journey project.

©2026, Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge. All Rights Reserved by ISHK

©2026, Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge. All Rights Reserved by ISHK