That's got some Universal Paperclips energy... It wouldn't collapse, it would evolve into its own artificial intelligence that keeps expanding until it fills the universe and follows it to the heat death of the universe. Can the workings of the second law of thermodynamics be reversed?

I don't think that's specific to the economy. I think that's a succinct description of civilization.

> The happy fact of the matter is that the vast majority of actors in the economy seem to be pretty well-behaved.

That's mainly because, in most countries, to become a participant in a regulated financial system, you have to meet the 'fit and proper' criteria of qualification [https://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs47c4.pdf].

There are continuous audits and enforcement/disciplinary actions taken to ensure regulatory compliance. Also, digitisation has enabled tech based regulatory/supervisory tooling to reduce the burden of regulatory/supervisory activities.

And, as newer/faster tech based mechanisms/rails have gained adoption older more cumbersome rails are getting retired. This is leading to effective regulatory simplifications.

It's because of mutually assured destruction. It's the same reason why there's a tacit agreement between enemy heads of state to not just assassinate each other. Doing so would just start a new world order that wouldn't be in anyone's interest. Sort of like nuking an enemy isn't a good idea either because of the retaliatory consequences it would necessarily cause.

Sounds like bitcoin's 51% attack issues.

Only I'm guessing it doesn't take half as much to create crumble the banking system.

Ah yes the old BAI format which is totally not a CSV file with a bunch of insane rules that differ per bank and are passed around via sftp server that are on the internet.

I'm glad I quit that job. The only problem is when I tell people how the bank actually move money they don't believe me.

Yep, a shocking amount of ad-hoc processes and standards held over from the 70s and earlier. Also, most surprising to me, very few people in the industry actually understand how it works. Most people have never met an actual banker. The people in your local bank branch are sales people and technicians. It is nearly impossible even to find someone who really knows what is going on under the hood, let alone get a meeting with them. And there is no documentation, no primer you can read to bring you up to speed the way you can learn about emacs or Javascript. It's all a good-old-boy network, and even finding an actual member of the club to talk to is nearly impossible.