A visual guide to how money, markets and wealth really work
Big Money
The machine most people never see.
Start readingWho really controls the money?
Most people picture billionaires. The truth is stranger — most of the world's biggest money is ordinary savings, pooled and passed up a chain few ever see. Follow that chain, and you find who really steers it.
It is institutions, not individuals. A handful of giant asset managers — led by BlackRock and Vanguard — invest the world's pooled savings and pensions, most of it ordinary people's retirement money.
See exactly how the money flows up the chainUS$14tnsteered by BlackRock alone
Six parts, one machine
Each part stands on its own, one idea per spread. Start at the beginning, or jump to whatever you are most curious about.
- 1The Story of MoneyBarter, the first money, trust, old Singapore, and the cashless world.Spreads 1–5
- 2How Money Really WorksHow banks work, the trick that creates money, central banks, inflation, crypto, bubbles.Spreads 6–11
- 3Companies & MarketsCompanies, shares, IPOs, the exchange backend, brokers, indexes, ETFs.Spreads 12–23
- 4The Big PlayersWho controls the money, investment banks, hedge funds, private equity, sovereign wealth.Spreads 24–31
- 5How Wealth Really WorksHow fortunes are made, owners vs earners, family offices, trusts, succession.Spreads 32–39
- 6The Big Picture & MindsetIncentives, booms and busts, debt, risk, money myths, and the last word.Spreads 40–45