Markets, whether subject to intervention or not, do not operate in isolation. Each market consists of a system that makes up a component of a network of ever larger systems culminating in what we might refer to as the world economy. We cannot, however, understand any economy as a unit. We must always keep the network, interconnected, nature of economies in mind.

In this section we will examine the systemic nature of markets. We will explain why all of us must play the role of participants and can never be effective controllers of the systems we refer to as economies.