The Bezzle and the Illusion of Modern Wealth

John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “the bezzle” to describe a peculiar and revealing phenomenon in finance: the magic interval between an embezzlement and its discovery. During this time, both the thief and the victim feel richer. It's an illusion of prosperity, a kind of economic hallucination.

Today, a good portion of the global economy is operating in something much like a perpetual bezzle—not through outright fraud, but through the pursuit of fiat wealth: government-printed money, channeled through stimulus programs, credit expansion, speculative bubbles, and financial instruments that seem increasingly divorced from productive labor.

Rather than building things of value—housing, infrastructure, healthcare, innovation—a significant slice of economic energy is devoted to getting closer to the money printer. Lobbyists, hedge funds, consultants, compliance officers, central bankers, and tech firms all circle the same flame: not how to serve society, but how to position themselves next to the issuance of currency and the rules around it.

In Galbraith’s terms, this isn’t progress—it’s theater. An economy can appear vibrant while growing more hollow, as more minds chase rents rather than returns on real work. The bezzle has expanded from a quirk of fraud to a systemic feature of modern capitalism.

The danger is not just inefficiency—it’s disillusionment. When people sense that real work is undervalued and financial games are rewarded, trust collapses. And when trust collapses, the bezzle ends—not with a bang, but with a very expensive audit.

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