“I don’t speak with economists never it’s a waste of time I will do an exception for you because you seem a bad economist.”.

Concursante (The Contestant, 2007). A movie by Rodrigo Cortes.

"These are the rules: I speak, you listen
there will be no questions
I don't know your case
but I know this
there is only a single case, a single situation
if you pay attention probably you will learn something

I have chickens, you have tomatoes
I want tomatoes, you want eggs
what can we do?
an exchange
a simple exchange
for example, an egg for a tomato
things were this way at the beginning
it's clear that tomatoes sometimes are good, sometimes not
and if I want to buy a horse
it's not clear how many eggs I need
but if we refer to a bit of gold
gold is beautiful, shining and it's rare, is valuable
then we can make a conversion table
if a dozen eggs it is equal to a nugget of gold
and a horse costs one hundred nuggets,
it is easy to see that a horse is equivalent to one hundred dozen eggs
simple, isn't it?
gold becomes a currency of exchange 
to simplify
we can no longer buy a horse with eggs
we change eggs with coins and it's done
beautiful, isn't it?

This is the first step
everything is more or less the same
simply now we need gold to buy things 
milk, meat, clothes, tools
finally, the person who created the system has a place where he keeps the gold
this person is an altruist, of course
he doesn't want to sell us his gold, he rather lends it
for example, he lends to me ten coins 
for twelve months
asking in return a small interest
say, ten per cent
so he threatens his gold while I don't risk anything
therefore he will need a guarantee in case I am not able to honor the agreement
in your case, you will mortgage your property
so the man will lend ten gold coins
for your carrots in exchange? no
you can keep your production of carrots and tomatoes
you don't have to sell anything, you continue to work
just, you should give back eleven coins in a year
ten coins plus the interest
how?
you can sell all your products
and you have a year
if you fail to honor the agreement the bank will take the property. Alright?

What is the problem?
we assume that the bank has a total of one hundred of gold coins
that is the amount of gold that exists
one hundred coins, nothing more
apart the good man there are other ten people:
you, me, a blacksmith, a seamstress, a policeman ... ten people in total
each one needs to buy gold and each one asked for a loan
ten coins for each one for a total of one hundred coins
the banker gave us all his gold
with absolute generosity
in exchange for what?
a mere ten percent?
a dime per person?
it's right!
But.

According to Pythagoras, we have a problem
if each one of us must pay eleven coins in twelve months 
where we take them?
eleven coins for each one are one hundred and ten coins
this means that there are ten coins of interest that we will never pay
never, whatever happens
there are no problems, the bank was created to facilitate things
there is a reasonable solution
do not worry
now you pay only the interests
a coin 
I will wait,
next year you will pay the initial amount 
the ten coins, in short
so if one pays a coin will remain with nine coins
so if we have to pay ten coins
at the end of the year we will have the same debt and less money.

A coin in less than last year
so if we continue for another ten years
assuming that we have to pay only the interests
in the end we will have nothing
while we still have the original debt to be paid
the bank will have recovered all the gold
we will have nothing 
and still have the initial debt to be paid
one hundred coins that all of us we fail to pay ever
simply because there are none
we lose land, livestock and the food 
mortgaged as collateral ten years ago
in ten years, the bank will recover all his money
plus all our property
while we do not have anything
absolutely nothing
In practice we become slaves of the bank
and for what?
for nothing, and in return of nothing.".

In Spanish. Requires Flash Player