The economic system isn't so bad - besides the tiny amount of companies - it's just not at all dynamic, it's very much frozen in time, with the houses running out of minerals and starting to push out into the borderworlds.
I mentioned 7 and 11 - yeah resources are there, but Rheinland isn't. What's it got in 11, about 300 people? Very expensive to suddenly move in there if you cut off both your source of finance and your source of fuel at once.
Insurance companies - they cover their expenses sure. Car insurance, for one, don't do any more. They pay their wages etc, and nothing's left.
Storywriters can quite easily create out of thin air, yeah, which is why I was just talking vanilla.