And that&#x27;s why you can&#x27;t have truly capitalist systems with authoritarian, corrupt government. China and Russia both learning this lessons the hard ways as we speak. The core requirement for &quot;free markets&quot; to work is to have transparent, leveled playing field.<p>And while a lot of criticism against US financial system is completely valid (of course HN is bashing US first — because HN readers live there and it makes more sense to criticize something that you&#x27;re more familiar with), it&#x27;s 10s, 100s times healthier, just because the political competition between a multitude of actors guarantees that power will not be centralized in single hands.<p>My (completely idiotic and unprofessional) prognosis for the next decade: global financial system will repeat the same mistakes with India boom.