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46. The Crisis of Credit Visualized
9 months ago
The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis.

Crisisofcredit.com

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

For more on my broader thesis work exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world, visit jonathanjarvis.com.

Support the project and buy a T-Shirt! cafepress.com/crisisofcredit

© Copyright 2009 Jonathan Jarvis

Credits

4,914 Likes

  • Parker Kuncl plus 9 months ago
    Woohoo!! First comment. Good job man on finaly getting this beast tamed. Looks and sounds great.

    I completely understand it now. Right around the 7:50 mark it started getting really good.
  • Conrad Perl 8 months ago
    Jonathan you have done a super job at making something complex very understandable. Keep going.
  • Uzbek Jon 8 months ago
    Agree, a great job...
  • corp-mule 15 hours ago
    What part did the
    Community Reinvestment Act play?
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

    What part did Barney
    Frank and the House
    Financial Services
    Committee play?

    What Caused Our Economic Crisis?
    youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4

    Timeline shows Bush,
    McCain warning Dems of
    financial and housing
    crisis; meltdown
    youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM
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  • stretta 9 months ago
    It is nice to have it explained clearly how the demand for mortgages was driven by investors.
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  • Phil Buendia 9 months ago
    awesome!
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  • mateoone 9 months ago
    Great work, and great clarification...
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  • SteveR plus 9 months ago
    Thanks for explaining all that.
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  • davidcervan 9 months ago
    Great Work!
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  • Nikio 9 months ago
    Wow! That's an amazing animation!
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  • precious 9 months ago
    the power of visual language. thank you!
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  • zak long 9 months ago
    exactly!

    everyone needs to watch this
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  • Kristjan Dekleva 9 months ago
    great animation ;) very educational :P
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  • Keyframe Studio 9 months ago
    The best explanation i never seen of this complex situation. Excellent job dude.
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  • Alexandre Jasionowski 9 months ago
    This is astonishing and very informative. Great work!
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  • Ocarina 9 months ago
    Great job!
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  • serdarsoydemir 9 months ago
    Very good animation and clear explanation, great work!
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  • Dan McGuire 9 months ago
    Have the folks at NPR's Planet Money seen this?
  • Jonathan Jarvis plus 9 months ago
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  • Dan McGuire 9 months ago
    Did you make it with AE?
  • Jonathan Jarvis plus 9 months ago
    Yes, mainly AE and AI
  • kkfung plus 8 months ago
    What is AE and AI?
  • pechisbeque 8 months ago
    Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator.
  • kkfung plus 8 months ago
    Thanks.
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  • hellobea 9 months ago
    Great job! Congratulations
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  • Vedran Strelar plus 9 months ago
    Hallelujah! I can see clearly now! :)

    p.s. great animation...
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  • Joe Gorgon 9 months ago
    So good it's now on my front page!
    gamingthemarket.com
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  • Sindre Fjeldstad 9 months ago
    Not only a great visual experience, but you actually got me to understand why this is happening. Thanks!
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  • jimmac 9 months ago
    Absolutely top notch, Jonathan.
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  • Paul Fisher 9 months ago
    This is awesome! It's like the 50s instructional video for a new generation. :)

    For viewers, it's also worth listening to a couple episodes of This American Life about the credit crisis:
    thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355 "The Giant Pool of Money"
    thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365 "Another Frightening Show About the Economy"

    I wouldn't be surprised if that weren't one of your resources. Again, utterly fantastic.
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  • Jon plus 9 months ago
    This is the most valuable video I have every seen on the internet. Amazingly informative. Super easy to follow. Looks like it came from the hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

    Great work. Your a pimp.
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  • Domenick Satterberg 9 months ago
    Awesome! From one ACCD alum to another. Informative and visually stunning. Great Job.

    Domenick Satterberg
    Film '06
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  • The Real UHF 9 months ago
    very fucking great
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  • Excellent job. Thank you for taking the time to make this video.
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  • Sasha Fornari plus 9 months ago
    dude, great work. very smart and to the point. I rarely understand (or even want to understand) situations like this but you made it easy! you're hired!!!
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  • Dr Nic 9 months ago
    Beautiful work.
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  • Sooz plus 9 months ago
    Clever and intelligent motion piece Jonathan,

    Congrats!
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  • Ryan Suits 9 months ago
    Nicely done and very informative!
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  • Creative World 9 months ago
    beautiful visual illustration of the credit crises! well done!
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  • Cosmo Polis 9 months ago
    Wonderfully done. And best of luck with the thesis!
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  • Dainius Blynas 8 months ago
    that is really good. Thanks for sharing!
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  • Malfr'ART 8 months ago
    Awesome work !!!
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  • Cris Edwards 8 months ago
    This is wonderful. More! I love it!
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  • mim 8 months ago
    nice work ;)
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  • Jacob Schriver 8 months ago
    Awesome work! Really
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  • Lenseffect 8 months ago
    true, true :)
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  • Andrew Spangler 8 months ago
    Excellent work! Clever and clear animations.
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  • Zane Hollingsworth plus 8 months ago
    Wonderful work.
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  • Steven Burda 8 months ago
    The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis !!

    Great video, Thanks for sharing!

    - Steven Burda
    linkedin.com/in/burda
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  • Splinter Cell 8 months ago
    Good Job dude. Just one thing, the video is not pointing towards any root cause, or if it is(Feds policy) its not clear enough.

    Its clear that the sub-prime bubble would not have taken place if Feds wouldn't have kept the interest rate so low.

    And its clear that since currently the interest rates are so low "in the name of stimulating the economy", its going to result in another bubble. (I can already see you making a similar video in 2013 explaining the Alternate Energy boom crisis).

    This is what I think is going to happen, under Obama administration the Alternate Energy ventures will get a big boost, like dot com bubble their shares will rise up to sky, people will presume that now market is ready to embrace alternate fuel resources, massive amount of money will be poured into alternate energy solutions to everything, from housing to automobiles to alternate energy powered laptops.

    All these things will be a part of the new bubble(root cause would be the same, ridiculously low interest rates in 2008-09-10), and soon they will realize that they have thrown way too much money into some technology to where market does not naturally wanna go(like in sub prime crisis, market did not naturally want to give loans to sub-prime borrowers, but because of lose credit they did it).
  • mike morgan 8 months ago
    Good forward thinking about funding the Alternative Energy Dream

    Re: Blame and the Fed? Nope.

    There is one additional piece missing from this argument of who to blame. Banks raised Sub Prime Adjustable Rates at just the wrong time for struggling homeowners, and that's what popped the bubble. Super Greed.

    If we measure success in getting people into home ownership, this story could have been one of tremendous success. Sub Primes helped people get in who generally couldn't play before. Adjusting their mortgages too soon, pushed them back out. Given the economy of the time, people who reached to get in would most likely have been able to afford the rate increase over more time.

    Imagine if all those people would have been helped by the banks. The banks could have extended the Adjustable Rate period for people that needed help - much like they are doing now. Keeping this whole new group of home owners in their homes keeps the payments coming and flowing to the CDOs. People who were struggling, were making their payments. They valued their mortgages and credit rating so much that they would continue to work extra hard to keep up - just what you want in a borrower.

    The NINA loans were based on borrowers having a very good credit rating - not as irresponsible as to cause this whole mess in themselves. That's my point of issue with the "Turning Point" presented in this video. The loans themselves were risky, but not necessarily bad. If the servicing of them were different, the story would have been one of success - for everyone.

    I foresee the government doing just this. Setting up bank competition by lending to the more stable Sub Prime borrowers, and getting the money flowing again. Proof of income is easy enough, rational financing with long APRs or low fixed is better than the nothing we have now. Hopefully those that walked away from home ownership can be brought back in, responsibly. Hopefully they still want to play after being treated so poorly.
  • Robin Pugh-Perry 8 months ago
    Per Wikipedia

    Initially, policies of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fueled the trend towards issuing risky loans. HUD loosened mortgage restrictions in the mid-1990s so first-time buyers could qualify for loans that they could never get before. In 1995, the GSE began receiving affordable housing credit for purchasing mortgage backed securities which included loans to low income borrowers. This resulted in the agencies purchasing subprime securities.

    In 1996, HUD directed Freddie and Fannie to provide at least 42% of their mortgage financing to borrowers with income below the median in their area. This target was increased to 50% in 2000 and 52% in 2005. In addition, HUD required Freddie and Fannie to provide 12% of their portfolio to “special affordable” loans. Those are loans to borrowers with less than 60% of their area’s median income. These targets increased over the years, with a 2008 target of 28%.

    Other forms of political pressure related to providing housing to underserved communities and lower-income families contributed to the expansion of risky lending. A September 30, 1999 New York Times article stated, "... the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans... The action... will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough... Fannie Mae... has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits. In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough for conventional loans... Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk... the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble... prompting a government rescue... the move is intended in part to increase the number of... home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings..."

    In 2004, HUD ignored warnings from HUD researchers about foreclosures, and increased the affordable housing goal from 50% to 56%. The MBS were very attractive to Wall Street, and while Fannie and Freddie targeted the lowest-risk loans, they still fueled the subprime market as a result. Subprime mortgage loan originations surged by 25% per year between 1994 and 2003, resulting in a nearly ten-fold increase in the volume of these loans in just nine years.

    In addition to political pressure to expand purchases of higher-risk mortgage types, the GSE were also under significant competitive pressure from large investment banks and mortgage lenders. For example, Fannie's market share of MBS issued dropped from a peak of 44% in 2003 to 22% in 2005, before rising to 33% in 2007.
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  • ring2 8 months ago
    fine work!
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  • Creative State 8 months ago
    Nicely done!
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  • juicysauce 8 months ago
    Fantastic job, Jonathan! I just wrote a post on Motionographer about it:
    motionographer.com/2009/02/20/the-crisis-of-credit-visualized/
  • Jonathan Jarvis plus 8 months ago
    Many thanks Justin!
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  • Daniel De Tomasi 8 months ago
    Bah!!! Awesome work!
    Can you tell me what software used?
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  • C Chambers 8 months ago
    Very concise, thanks for making this.

    I do have to say I was kind of shocked at your not-too-subtle implication that having more kids is an accepted indication of being financially irresponsible. In the world I live in, it's the more well-to-do and financially responsible families who are able to have more kids. The families that struggle financially only have 1 or 2.

    I wish you might have chosen a different visual indicator of financial irresponsibility. It would be nice if you could reconsider that.

    But other than that, outstanding job. Thanks for the time you put into this!
  • Anthony Marc 8 months ago
    He wasn't implying that having a lot of kids was financially irresponsible. It is only financially irresponsible if you are making $25000 per year and decide to have five or six kids. Having too many kids is just like having too much debt. You have to be responsible about what you can afford. Just because you can breed doesn't mean you can afford to pay the consequences.

    He also depicted the people smoking, but that isn't the only indicator of financial irresponsibility either. And what of the slurpee cup the dad was holding? Are we to assume that if we buy fountain drinks that we are going to default? And what about the size of the people? Are fat people going to default more often than skinny people? The graphic was just meant to depict a number of things that can illustrate poor choices that imply other things. I think you are reading way too much into it. The point was made and made well. I wouldn't change a thing. His illustrations are meant to all look like stereotypes, which is why the images got fatter the richer they got. It isn't meant to be taken as seriously as you seem to have taken it.
  • Biz Haddock 8 months ago
    Well said!
  • Kevin Collins 8 months ago
    I would agree with C Chambers that the family graphic was an unfortunate choice in an otherwise excellent video.

    Certainly, depicting the generic banker or investor as an overweight mogul has roots in Nast's "Tammany Hall" cartoons of the 19th century. And that lends the caricature the credibility and authenticity of satire. In addition, we recognize that these corporate characters are more institutional than individual, and so they benefit from a kind of anonymity.

    The "family," however, is neither institutional nor corporate -- it is human...which is what makes this crisis so personal. Ironically enough, considering the upscale preoccupation with fitness, the depiction of the banker may be less "accurate." But the depiction of the family merely comes across as ad hominem and a bit mean-spirited.

    Otherwise, bravo!
  • Luke Wilhelmi 8 months ago
    The video is very interesting and well executed. Thanks for that, Jonathan.

    Disagreeing with C Chambers, I have to say in a world where resources are disappearing quickly, where the highest use of energy per capita takes place in the US, a country where many are eager to blame China but shun a plan for itself concerning population control, I'd say having a lot of children IS a little irresponsible in this day & age, which is unfortunate but true.
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  • Dave Koss 8 months ago
    Really, Really Good.
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  • coffeepostal 8 months ago
    This is motion design at it's best. You took a subject that everyone knows, but no one understands and made it graspable using iconic imagery. Well done!
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  • PSST! 8 months ago
    Great job, Jonathan! This is REALLY well done.
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  • KYN1643 8 months ago
    The combination of the graffix, the sound efx, and the straighforward narration...priceless!
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  • Ivan Kowalenko 8 months ago
    Amazing job. It reminds me a bit of LAFKON's video on Trusted Computing: it uses clever graphics and stright forward voice-overs and commentary to simplify an amazingly complex problem without either sugar coating it or oversimplifying it. Excellent job, sir.
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  • Keller Mapua 8 months ago
    You did a wonderful job presenting the concepts of leverage and how it contributed to the downfall of the world economy. However, you failed to explain how Credit Default Swaps greatly amplified the damage by ballooning the liabilities of the banks. But all-in-all a fun and insightful presentation!
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  • Kevin Edwards 8 months ago
    Awesome. Very well done.

    Can you please post the sequel as soon as possible? I'm kind of freaking out here.
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  • Anthony Marc 8 months ago
    You did an amazing job! As one who works in the financial industry as an instructor, I'll be refering this presentation to people who want to understand it better than I can explain it. You have done a tremendous job and I hope you win awards for it. If you don't, then you should know that you certainly deserve to. Bravo!
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  • Daniel De Tomasi 8 months ago
    Yep! It realy need a Award!
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  • Charlie McRae 8 months ago
    superb
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  • mayari 8 months ago
    ...und plötzlich diese übersicht!

    Thanks so much for that. posted it on facebook.

    btw. like how you exagerated the design elements like angle of houses, people & accessories etc. Really nice work!
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  • Sarah Cole 8 months ago
    This is fantastic. Thank you!
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  • Thomas Polk 8 months ago
    This was awesome...such a great job! I've found that SO many of my friends and family do not understand what went wrong, but really do want to without studying finance for hours on end! This is a great tool.

    Thanks again for such good work.
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  • Matt Michelson 8 months ago
    Totally excellent. Posted about it on my blog, and also what else could be explained better through motion graphics...
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  • kaspars plus 8 months ago
    I'm wiser now. Thanks!
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  • thaen 8 months ago
    Really enjoying your videos, Jonathan. Are you by any chance the guy who made this video as well? It's a very similar style to my untrained eye:
    youtube.com/watch?v=Da6qckWgsL4
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  • Mark 8 months ago
    Great video! I completely understand it now!
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  • Robert Anhalt 8 months ago
    This totally reminds me of Futurama's "None like it hot!"

    You need Billy West to narrate.
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  • Paul Infield-Harm 8 months ago
    I'd like to ask about the "responsible" and "less responsible" borrower images. The contrast in tone with the rest of the video really jumped out at me. There's a couple of particular details: the woman's hair (which is either curly or in curlers), the way she is holding her child, and the man's tattoo. These all seem particular markers meant to say "white trash" and pretty much nothing else.

    Am I wrong? Why the woman's hair and the man's tattoo?

    I'm sorry to pick on one questionable part of what was an overall excellent video.
  • Anibal Estrella 8 months ago
    you are right Paul, same q to me... i found the clip really cool but that ... mmmmm... makes me think
  • Natalie Perkins 8 months ago
    I agree Paul, some of the symbolism is blatantly classist, but on the whole the animation is fantastic.
  • David M 7 months ago
    Seriously? Classist? What class does the family in question represent that Mr. Jarvis is disparaging? He's talking about "Less Responsible" people. People with a history of making bad financial choices as indicated by questionable credit ratings who then took on mortgages that they shouldn't have. The family doesn't even represent a class at all.

    My guess is that YOU immediately thought he meant poor people because you saw a family with a fat, smoking, drinking dad, 5 kids and a smoking mom with a baby on her hip. Guess what that makes you?

    Now, let's say you were creating something, rather than just criticizing, and in this hypothetical something, you needed to illustrate the existence of people with a pattern of making poor financial choices represented by one family. How would you do it differently to keep from piquing the sensibilities of people like you? That might be a useful comment to make.

    By the way, Mr. Jarvis, the bankers are all very, very fat. That offends me. Why do you hate bankers?
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  • anantha 8 months ago
    Really awesome
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  • Britt Johansson 8 months ago
    Great visualization and succinct explanation. Thanks for using and sharing your talent this way.
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  • Beth Hamilton 8 months ago
    Your video is awesome. Can you get this video subtitled or captioned so that deaf/hard of hearing viewers can watch the video? You can do this via dotsub.com. Thank you.
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  • Na Snyder 8 months ago
    Saw this in my U.S. History Class! Great and easy to understand! Good job!
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  • tritochke 8 months ago
    amazing!...i really didn't have any clue about this..brilliant work :)
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  • Gutemberg Fox 8 months ago
    Hey! Nice video! even because I never get this financial stuff! Congrats!
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  • Danielle Yumol 8 months ago
    Fantastic visual presentation combined with a very clear instructional focus. Excellent!
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  • Oh Mary! 8 months ago
    I'm more interested in the Credit Criss. Where can I find a video about that?
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  • Derek Reynolds 8 months ago
    Gorgeous and very informative. Great work.
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  • Artrepreneur 8 months ago
    Awesome man... well done.
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  • Jephir 8 months ago
    Extremely well done!

    I went from knowing pretty much nothing about the credit crisis to a good understanding, just by watching this video. Nicely done!
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  • Grrrrrrrreat!!
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  • wow
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  • Will 8 months ago
    Great work. I did think that the discussion of how banks use high leverage ratios was glossed over a little too quickly. You show getting cash for the loans, but banks lend more money than they actually have in holdings, and there is more money in the economy than there is cash. It's gets you to some weird financial paradoxes that are subtle but significant. I'd also think more focus on credit default swaps would have made sense, given that some institutions had basically insured more money than existed. The pacing was a touch deliberate, but the animations were great.
  • rex irae 8 months ago
    I appreciate this comment . Banks DO loan multiple credits on a single deposit... that is something people need to know.

    and that works with regulations.
    no one forced banks to accept sub prime loans. there were market regulations that made it ILLEGAL - when those regulations were removed or sidestepped is when the banks began doing it -

    cause hey, youll make alot of money heres how. you get a house, you sell the house, people pay for house monthly - they cant pay for house, they move out and you still have the house and thier money.

    its perfectly criminal. theres no clause that the house purchaser gets a percentage of future sale for thier investment... even if it was 1%

    dont even get me started on amoritization - paying all the interest up front, so you must wait a looooong time to even begin making a dent in your principal - which is the money you borrowed in the first place -

    its a messed up anti social system and naturally all cancers die. - see you later capitalism
  • Ominous Red 8 months ago
    I would also like to cosign this comment. I don't have a problem with Capitalism so much as I do with the imbalance when it comes to the sharing of profit. Investors make way too much and do not share it with the employees that help them make it.
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