This chapter explains how to diagnose the human condition in a dynamic global system. Strange was the one who insisted that the things to be explained were not always what they seemed, and that theory, especially the grand theory, could obscure the fundamental realities. Discerning the causes and the larger meanings behind the social and political arrangements through which these values are distributed in the particular global policy arenas framed Strange's IPE. Murphy focused on the capital markets that are not reliably backstopped by the emergency fiscal capabilities, and therefore not reliably regulated; expansive systems for producing goods and the services that depend on degrading the life-sustaining bio-sphere; and the absence of redistributive instruments adequate enough to stabilize an emerging global society. Helleiner used the conceptual and the empirical grounding to show us precisely how the global financial system worked during the crisis of 2008.