THE INSANITY OF MANKIND IN ECONOMIC PRACTICE

The contemporary economy has shifted from the trade of tangible goods to the trade of abstractions. This paper traces the evolutionary chain of an imaginary economy enabled by the fiat money system: beginning with insurance as the commodification of risk, futures and index trading as the commodification of time and statistical averages, crypto assets as the commodification of narrative, carbon credits as the commodification of non-occurrence, ESG as a labeling mechanism for value, and culminating in biodiversity credits as the highest form of commodification. Through descriptive analysis of these instruments, this study identifies a consistent pattern: the further an instrument is from its material substrate, the greater the value traded — and the more fragile its foundation. This paper argues that late capitalism no longer merely trades goods, but trades non-occurrence: things that did not happen, do not exist, and cannot be verified. The resilience of this system depends entirely on the sustainability of collective trust in these layers of abstraction.