How did the world get to where we are today?
It’s an interesting question.
I’m sure many of you have noticed a change in the financial landscape over the last few years.
It started with a global recession and then an economic meltdown.
As we all know, that led to a financial crisis that brought the world to its knees.
That has led to an unprecedented debt crisis and a massive reduction in demand for debt.
The consequences of that are profound and, as the recent news reports have shown, the consequences are far reaching.
One of the biggest problems is that we’ve got an increasingly dysfunctional financial system.
We’ve had the largest debt in history in a few years and a lot of the world’s debt is now held by a tiny group of very rich individuals.
They’re not paying their debts on time and are accumulating large debts.
Most of them have been able to buy up large swathes of the debt markets and are now using those assets to prop up their companies and their banks.
For a while, it looked like the financial system was going to be fixed.
But it hasn’t.
And this has led people to ask: How did this happen?
Why is this happening?
What can we do about it?
The answers are complex and nuanced.
Let’s take a look at what is going on.
Here are a few quick takeaways.
1.
The Financial Crisis: The Financial Crisis was caused by the fact that the banking system was too big and too interconnected.
This led to too much debt in the system, especially in countries where debt was not held in trust, but was instead held in banks and credit unions.
In these countries, governments could borrow and spend money but they couldn’t create a sustainable economy.
So they made massive cuts in government spending and investment.
2.
The Credit Crunch: In some countries, the banks are too big to fail.
What happens when they do?
When banks fail, it’s not a financial catastrophe but a financial shock that causes massive unemployment and economic disruption.
Many people lose their jobs and have to resort to working part-time or taking jobs at the margins.
People lose their homes and often they can’t even afford to live in their own homes.
3.
The Collapse: Many countries have experienced a financial collapse because of the way they’ve managed their financial system and the way their central banks have worked.
Over time, this has created a huge financial burden on governments, banks and other institutions.
With the loss of confidence in the global financial system, governments have been forced to do something that they never had to do before: They’ve created new, more-regulated, private financial systems.
There’s a lot that can go wrong with these private financial markets.
4.
The Debt Crisis: The debt crisis has become so severe that countries have started to question the viability of the financial markets themselves.
Governments are having to borrow money and spend it on projects that are not worth their investment.
If they have to borrow more money to finance these projects, it means that the governments are going to have to spend more on public services to pay for it. 5.
The Crisis Is Not Over: Governors are not going to bail out their banks and government agencies.
No matter how large and complex the financial systems, governments are still going to rely on the banks to hold the money that they borrow from the banks.
They are not just lending money to people, but also holding the cash that they’re issuing.
And it’s only going to get worse.
6.
There Is No Cure: There are some options for people who want to get out of debt, but they have the choice of paying a higher interest rate on their loans or going into default and losing their home.
Debtors can go into default by defaulting on their mortgages, which is what happened in some of the countries that experienced a crisis.
Others can default on their credit cards.
Either way, they can go bankrupt.
7.
What We Can Do About It: You don’t have to buy all the stuff that governments are buying.
You can pay down your debts and save money.
How can you?
There is a wealth of information available on the internet, from financial advice to online shopping tools to free legal advice.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you understand the implications of the situation you’re in and ask the right questions.
8.
What Can We Do About the Debt Crisis?
You may not be able to get the debt out of your head and you may not have the ability to make payments.
However, you can at least have some control over your finances and your lifestyle.
Your choices are limited by a debt that is held in your name, not yours.
All of the above are just a few of