In the space of a mere eight years, the former US Federal Reserve Bank Chair Ben Bernanke has managed to achieve what Lenin could barely conceive. He's convinced the US, the UK, Japan and Europe to embark on a revolutionary journey to completely subvert free market instincts, writes Ian Verrender.

Maybe it's just me, but have you noticed the striking similarity between Vladimir Lenin and Ben Bernanke lately?

Superficially, there's the obvious physical resemblance; whippet build, glabrous pate, facial hair and a penchant for stylish, if somewhat conservative, garb.

More significantly, both appear to harbour the same ideological distrust of free markets or, at the very least, a burning desire to control them as much as possible.

Separated by almost a century, both men have made it a lifelong ambition to impose state control over the economy.

And it has to be said, while Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin achieved significant success in spreading the word from Russia through developing nations, he and his successors never quite got across the line when it came to the so-called free world.

Maybe it was his reputation as a firebrand, an over-reliance on bloody revolution by force and the frightening prospect - for the ruling elite at least - that wealth would be redistributed to the poor.

Both Lenin and Bernanke appear to harbour the same ideological distrust of free markets.

Enter Ben Bernanke. In the space of a mere eight years, the former Federal Reserve chief has managed to achieve what Vladimir could barely conceive. He's convinced the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Japan and Europe to embark on a revolutionary journey to completely subvert free market instincts.

Unlike his Russian predecessor, Ben has opted for the calm, congenial exterior of Central Banker from Central Casting, complete with a mogadon monotone designed to lull his audience into a state of torpor.

He's also wisely decided to modify the wealth distribution bit. As western governments have raided the kitty, plunging themselves into an ocean of debt, much of the proceeds have flowed directly into asset markets - stocks, bonds and property - which has helped maintain the flow of wealth towards the wealthy. Brilliant!

Last week, Ben was in Japan. And that got twitchy fingered traders across the globe all hot under the collar.

Ben, after all, is the man who pioneered the implementation of "unorthodox monetary policy".

He pushed US interest rates to zero before embarking on three episodes of quantitative easing (a euphemism for printing money). He watched market bond rates hover just above zero and, once he'd quit as head of the US Federal Reserve, gave an approving nod to nations cutting their official interest rates into negative territory.

Japan has done all that and then some. In fact, it has issued so many government bonds under its quantitative easing programs, it no longer can justify raising any more cash. The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, has bought so many, it now is the country's biggest creditor with close to 40 per cent of all Japanese government bonds on issue.

As far as kick-starting the real economy, it's been a dismal failure. Now, after Ben's Tokyo visit, everyone is betting that he's urging the newly re-elected government of Shinzo Abe to go one step further and rain cash down on the country from a great height. Helicopter money.

That's right, direct cash hand-outs to encourage spending in a last ditch effort to break free of deflation. Money for nothing.

Right now, around half a billion people covering a quarter of the world's economy are living under negative interest rates.

Europe's central bank went negative last year and individual European governments such as Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark have been doing the same. Japan jumped in early this year and Germany is the latest to issue bonds at negative rates.

Unfortunately, the net result of all this experimental monetary policy is that markets no longer are free.\

Traders have always operated under the maxim of "Don't fight the Fed"; meaning that if the US central bank embarked on a course, it was best to go with the flow.

From being a moderating hand, ironing out the booms and busts, central banks globally rapidly have become the dominant force.

Traders now react gleefully to bad news because they figure central banks will inject ever more cash into the economy, which will find its way straight to the markets.

At their best, stock markets should anticipate the real economy and at their very least should reflect economic health.

For the past five years, however, as markets have shot to new records, the global economy has continued to slow. And central bankers, having driven this boom, now find themselves fearful of taking any action that may undermine it. They can no longer control the monster they've created and now are fearful of incurring its wrath.

It began as an attempt to pour money into the economy and artificially depress interest rates, to spark business investment, encourage employment and consumer spending. Instead, it fed directly into speculative investment. And those who profited the most are those that stoked the fires of the Financial Crisis. Late last week, JP Morgan Chase delivered a $US6.2 billion profit for the June quarter.

Three weeks ago, the UK decision to leave the European Union sent markets into a savage tailspin. Within hours, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank among others were promising even more "stimulus".

The amounts of money involved are staggering.

A few months ago, Japan earmarked $US851 billion for stimulus for this year alone. And the US Federal Reserve has bought more than $US4.2 trillion of its own securities in recent years under the guise of quantitative easing.

Even investment banks, having ridden this artificial boom for seven years, have grown wary of the overbearing influence the state on financial markets.

Take this note from Macquarie to clients last week, reprinted by blogsite Macrobusiness:

We believe that the global economy and investors are residing in the twilight zone between an era of relatively free market capitalist economies (with its own set of signals) and a new environment which is likely to be completely dominated by the state.

Who knows where this all will end? Many are concerned that all this Central Bank intervention not only has prolonged the inevitable, but created an environment for a much greater collapse.

Others are starting to think that it all may never end; that we've discovered the elixir of permanent wealth; that given governments have bought all their own debt, they'll just forgive themselves or extend the payment date into the never never.

But even Lenin realised there were limits to revolutionary activity.

Ian Verrender is the ABC's business editor.