Global economy and finance

The main symptom of the crisis is financial, so the first topic we’ll discuss is money, the energy of our time; how is money created, the functions of central banks, and the unstable nature of fractional reserve banking. This will help us understand notions such as quantitative easing, the rationale for bank bailouts, and the Eurozone specific situation. We will then analyse the boom and bust cycles induced by misallocations of investments; it explains the
exorbitant growth of financial markets, with their crafty instruments, options, derivatives, hedge funds, and ‘subprime’ vehicles. We will see why the law of supply and demand does not apply to speculative trading, allowing the information of bubbles, and why this generates huge profits for ‘the 1%’. Finally, we will confront the views of various
economists on possible solutions to the present crisis, and hopefully, we will conclude that we may not be doomed
after all.