Secret from the inside of the financial system:
The bank balance that shows up on your statement or when you login is not real.

That money is not actually in the bank. It’s simply a promise that the bank will pay that to you…if they have it.

A year ago this week, the people of Cyprus woke up to find that the banks simple didn’t have all the money they said they did. This is not unusual. In fact, most banks globally don’t keep anything close to total deposits in actual money. I’m not just talking about just physical cash, I’m talking the total money they have access to…it’s less than what the depositors are owed.

On occasion, reality catches up to the banks and they cannot meet obligations.
In 2008 to solve this problem the US government stepped in and simply issued / printed new money, and paid it as bonus bailouts to bad banks, thereby devaluing everyone else’s money.
To solve the problem in Cyprus the government stepped in and simply seized up to 40% of the amount in bank accounts of many depositors and said “this isn’t yours anymore, it’s ours”.

This kind of thing happens and the phony nature of today’s money system is a fundamental issue, even in first world markets.

This is one reason so many people are excited about Bitcoin as a new currency.