Editing Market system (section)

==Importance of trust==
The degree of trust in a political or economic authority (such as a [[bank]] or [[central bank]]) is often critical in determining the success of a market.  A market system depends inherently on a stable [[money]] system to ensure that units of account and standards of deferred payment are uniform across all players—and to ensure that the balance of contracts due within that market system are accepted as a store of value, i.e. as "[[collateral (finance)|collateral]]" of the holder of the contract, which justifies "[[credit (finance)|credit]]" from a lender of cash.

Banks, themselves, are often described in terms of markets, as "transducers of trust" between lenders (who deposit money) and borrowers (who take it out again).  Trust in the bank to manage this process makes more economic activity possible.  However, critics say, this trust is also quite easy to abuse, and has many times proven difficult to limit or control (see [[business cycle]]), resulting in 'runs on banks' and other such 'crises of trust' in 'the system'.