Reading the newspaper these days often feels like an onslaught
of one crisis after another—storms causing severe flooding,
droughts ruining crops and driving up food prices, wildfires
destroying thousands of homes. In the midst of these immediate
and dramatic stories, the global financial crisis of 2008 can
feel like old news. But a new video animation by Doing It
Ourselves illustrates why the financial crisis—and the flawed
system it’s rooted in—should still be major concerns for all of
us today. The video, “What the Economic Crisis Really Means –
and what we can do about it,” begins by explaining the roots of
the economic crisis in our fractional reserve banking system. By
this system, banks are able to lend out almost all of the money
we deposit in them to other people and businesses. As the video
explains, “when you put $100 in one bank, they lend $90 of it to
someone else, who then puts that $90 in their bank. Now there’s
$190 where there used to be $100. That $90 lent out will also be
deposited and $81