Where has all that money gone? I have found it hard not to post a blog saying 'I told you so'.

I might suggest that at least a couple of hundred billion had vanished before the crash ala the Ponzi schemes running everywhere from Wall St to Widgiemooltha.

In fact the financial system itself had become a giant Ponzi scheme.

My none too subtle dig at the FBI in October as the financial crisis started to hurt.

I did note that I received an answer from the FBI Director barely a day later, in the New York Times no less. Promises, excuses, complaints about lack of manpower and manpower being diverted to higher priority terrorist investigations. Genuine. Those terrorists have cost us a lot without doing much. Merely causing us take our (FBI) eye off the ball was enough to see unbridled greed, and little supervision, do a lot of harm.

Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, both influential members of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced legislation last week to provide $110 million to hire 500 new F.B.I. agents, 50 new assistant United States attorneys and 100 new S.E.C. enforcement officials to crack down on such crimes.

There were many items on FBI desks which had not been investigated, and the first to bear it's rotten fruit was the Maddoff $50 billion rip. In comparison to internet and credit card fraud it makes the average card fraud gang look decidedly amateurish.

That may be where much money has gone. The rest of the money and profits were illusory and only existed in the minds and hard drives of the many bankers and brokers enthusiastically running their own variations on the Ponzi theme.

It was certainly an interesting year, frustrating, because to create too much alarm would cause a fait accompli, and too little is ignored.

I certainly tried to do my little bit, both on finextra and elsewhere. I don't look forward to being right in my predictions again this year. They are somewhat dire. I'm sure readers of my blog will understand that even my boldest claims and predictions are generally, in fact, understatements.

There are different schools of thought as to whether the collapse is a good or bad thing. It certainly had the effect of temporarily reigning in consumption, possibly not a bad thing, but it will no doubt stall progress in a lot of areas which are critical to the civility and habitability of the planet in the short and medium term.

There is one thing for certain, the actions of financial institutions and governments will have repercussions which last well beyond our lifetime and may forever change the way people use money.

I've yet to see any actions by any government that will have any real effect on the future outcome. I can visualise them arguing in the back room that the aberrant bankers must be left to continue and that a raft of investigations and convictions for financial industry types will not help the situation, merely further undermine any remaining semblance of faith in the system.

The one thing we must all face is that the money is gone, and all institutions were effectively nationalised, from the moment they locked the first account to prevent a run, and once the first guarantee was issue by a government to a bank, all the financial institutions were nationalised.

Perhaps getting on with it and laying out a plan to go forward might at least be a course of action.

It just might be a vote-getter. There are additional difficulties in that government income is drying up. Tax seldom leads the list of a struggling person's priorities. Governments will find it increasingly difficult to collect taxes, in addition to there being fewer transactions attracting tax. This will be the critical issue for governments. Bail-outs are expensive and provide a poor return, whereas properly managed financial services are essential infrastructure for everyone and potentially profitable in the first instance and providing opportunities for better  (and more) tax collection. I don't suggest that governments provide all the financial services, but they should be closely supervising most.

Investing in essential infrastructure like financial services and identity is probably a good start and we all need them to go forward.

One way to lower taxes is to collect them where they're due, from whomever they're due, when they are due, rather than have the remaining money-earners carry the full burden of the non-payers and the middlemen.

If the infrastructure is working and the parties are identified, free markets will do the rest. As a 'shareholder' in a democratic government, I want to see something for my investment and preferably with a modicum of fairness. I'd also like to see less opportunity to profit from fraud on every level.

I had noticed a rise in civil unrest, particularly in, but by no means confined to, marginal recently 'liberated economies' such as Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and even Greece. Is this a hint of what might become more widespread if this opportunity is poorly managed?

I remember a French film about peak oil '2013 La Fin du Petro'l, where supply did not meet demand and chaos ensued. I see little difference in the case of money.

I don't see Bill Gates' prediction of a decade of ruin, humans are supposed to be too smart for that. It'll just take a bold plan and bolder execution, something I've yet to see put forward by governments, but it is possible to turn this into one of the defining moments in human history. It's a wake-up call. Many long term problems could be solved simultaneously and we might sooner have the luxury of looking back on all this more positively. Opportunity from adversity.

 It isn't 1775, nor is it 1930, and we have a lot more going for us now. What would John Adams do? I think he'd tweak a few things while the opportunity is there.

As for myself I'd propose putting a foundation into place which supports the needs of both citizens and their servants - governments. That foundation begins with identity, includes a means of transacting, saving and lending and includes all citizens. It must of course also meet the needs of government taxation. In the current and future financial climate I don't see too many established players chasing the the unemployed let alone the unprofitable under-documented and under-banked. They must be included if we don't want to see increasing civil unrest.

The most important objective is to provide the proper foundation infrastructure for global commerce, which must include identity and accountability. Unless we do it quickly, Bill will be almost right. It may still take decades to rebuild trust.

If we are to go forward, we must do better than what was before.