Jonathan Jarvis makes sense of the credit crunch – awesome.  This should be compulsory viewing

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

This animation is one of the best things I’ve seen online.  Brilliant.  A spellbinding way to show the greedy, self-destructive madness of selling risk onwards for bigger an bigger profit.

There are parts of this animation that I think might be slightly inaccurate but I don’t think it detracts from the power of the piece. I’m not a financier, but when he talks about leverage, I think he misses the point that leverage isn’t just about getting the same level of profit from more volume but using volume to achieve a better buying price – and hence making more profit.

Details aside, the animation still hits the issue right between the eyes.  Watch it and tell me you didn’t go “Yesss!!!” at some point.