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What is debt? How did it cause the crisis? | FEB's Dirk Bezemer explains using video and animation

25 June 2013

What is money? Why do banks make money? How does a bubble work? Why are we in a crisis? How can we solve it?

FEB's economist and lecturer Dirk Bezemer explains in this series of short video's Debt: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. A simple story about a complex subject, using video and animation techniques.

► Click for the complete playlist with 4 episodes on youtube


Episode 1: Debt, a great invention

E01 covers how debt and money systems developed over the years into the financial system we have today. All modern money is debt created by banks and this system has and can potentially bring us great wealth.

Episode 2: How Bubbles grow

E02 covers how debt and money can be created by banks for both productive and non-productive purposes. With non-productive purposes mainly being asset markets. Here excessive debt causes the prices of these assets to go up. The market does not correct for this. This leads to bubbles and a large debt burden which are a drag on the economy.

Episode 3: Why crises occur

E03 covers how a debt fuelled asset bubble is always doomed to burst. This leads to a selve enforcing process of debt reduction that spirals into the real economy. This is why we call our crisis today a debt crisis or a credit crunch.

Episode 4: The post-bubble economy

E04: Is it possible to create an economic system that does not produce bubbles and crises? And is it possible to solve our current debt crisis? We need to restructure unsustainable debt, redirect bank lending to productive purposes and get productive bank lending going again. And finally the economic science should pay close attention to Debt, one of its most important variables.

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The making of...

Last modified:01 February 2023 10.38 a.m.

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