The way we think about money has many parallels with the way people thought about the world 500 years ago. We laugh at how everything tied back to God back then and smile at how they could have been so stupid as to hold so many silly theories without supporting evidence. Many still hold these silly theories in 2012, but I don't think it is worth my time to refute them. What is less commonly realized is that money holds the same grip on our world view, with the same dogmatic blindness  This is blindingly obvious when you examine theories about the stock market, but equally true of markets in general. The more unsettling truth is that we utterly rely on the belief that money is real -- a "fact" that is as self-sustaining as the belief that God is responsible for everything that happens or that everything that happens was "fated". All these beliefs vanish with unsettling ease once seriously questioned. Basically, money is a symbol of trust. If you don't trust a

The way we think about money has many parallels with the way people thought about the world 500 years ago. We laugh at how everything tied back to God back then and smile at how they could have been so stupid as to hold so many silly theories without supporting evidence. Many still hold these silly theories in 2012, but I don't think it is worth my time to refute them. What is less commonly realized is that money holds the same grip on our world view, with the same dogmatic blindness  This is blindingly obvious when you examine theories about the stock market, but equally true of markets in general. The more unsettling truth is that we utterly rely on the belief that money is real -- a "fact" that is as self-sustaining as the belief that God is responsible for everything that happens or that everything that happens was "fated". All these beliefs vanish with unsettling ease once seriously questioned. Basically, money is a symbol of trust. If you don't tru