305 trillion’s debt?

Trust is a powerful word upon which any animal with substantial consciousness relies. If this is true, why does such a thing as debt exist on this planet? To whom do we owe? Why has the complex structure of finance led us into this rabbit hole?

First things first: what is financial debt? To answer this simple question, we must go back to the creation of the banking system. You know, that place where you save or hide your money to avoid being robbed or to avoid stashing cash under your pillow (however, given our reality, that seems like a good choice). Then things went further with the creation of financial services: this means banks can lend money, so people can buy houses, create companies, or even pay college tuition. It sounds very interesting and socially conscious. But this system has already created several financial crises: the 1929 Great Depression, 1980s stock crash, 2008 world financial crisis, just to name some of the most relevant (and most of them happened in the Western Hemisphere).

Today we're still talking about the world's debt, which goes up to 315 trillion dollars (not 305 trillion, that number scaled up in 2024!). So that's about 12 zeros behind the 315 or 305, whatever. It's an amount of money on which every human being could live normally. Divide it among the 8 billion people globally. You could afford anything you want, but we'd surely end up in freaking hyperinflation (we're doomed!).

Why is this happening? There are major players in this game: central banks, banks, and financial institutions. One has caught our attention: the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Its nickname is the "Central Bank of Central Banks." Do you know where it's located? Well, in Switzerland (this is not a conspiracy theory, check the link).

The BIS regulates how much debt banks can afford, so when we take a look at the world's debt, 315 trillion dollars!!—you may think, are these dudes taking drugs? Why so much money? Even worse, they say (please don't panic) that there's missing debt, about a hundred trillion.

Going back to the word trust, its etymology tells us we can rely upon the veracity of something or someone. But can we trust this system? Surely you're pondering taking out your savings and putting them under your mattress, probably it's much more trustworthy than banks nowadays.

Here’s another issue, the rise of AI… I won’t go there…