Jonathan Jarvis's The Crisis of Credit Visualized

Jonathan Jarvis's little video The Crisis of Credit Visualized strives to be an eleven-minute epiphany regarding the current financial flop. Alas, for the layman eager to understand the headlines in the newspapers he doesn't read or why his brother-in-law was laid-off, the clip falls short. 

Yes, the essential institutions and their basic roles are there, in fine animated brevity, but how much of this nominal barrage will actually click and stick with someone who needs such a video in the first place? Despite looking like something geared for grade six, anyone enlightened by the film would be hard-pressed to recite its glossy explanation without feeling like something of a stumbling, stuttering sham. After all, who exactly are these investors that bought AAA rated debt? What is an investment bank? Or a hedge fund? What use is a block headed understanding of finance?

Without watching the clip several times, researching what these institutions actually are and finally committing it all to memory (at this point you might as well have picked up a book), Jarvis's target audience of financial moles will walk away with the same basic understanding of the debacle that they'd already gleamed from the past eight months of news. 

At its worthwhile best, the film's looping diagrams of throbbing arrows aptly illustrate how the whole affair was one big debt-lubricated circle-jerk, even if you can't remember names or seating arrangements.