Part 2/8:
A familiar story circulates in financial discussions: it tells of all the world's gold being centralized in one super-secure vault on a remote island. In this imaginary world, banks pooled their gold to reduce security costs. However, a catastrophic earthquake supposedly caused the precious metal to vanish, leaving only promissory notes in its place. The remaining officials, unsure of how to handle the shocking news, decide that "what the people don’t know won’t hurt them." This fable underscores a perennial fear: the risk of financial institutions concealing truths from the public, especially concerning their assets.