This a freakin’ awesome cartoon that explains how the credit crisis began, played out, and exploded in our face. I know you’ve seen and heard a million of these by now, but this one is highly visually engaging and entertaining, enough so I could see it being used in the classroom and kids not getting (too) bored. Graphic designer Jonathan Jarvis. Especially good is how it explains leverage.

It does miss out on a few details, like how shady mortgage brokers would push even prime borrowers into subprime mortgages because the fees were better. Or how BBB rated CDOs would also get split into their own tranches, with the top one getting a AAA rating just like the one the BBB was derived from. But you have to streamline some of the information to make a compelling 11-minute information, and whatever is lost in fine-grain is made up for in lucidness.

Go to the video on Vimeo to see the really nice HD version.

The Crisis Of Credit Visualized [jdjarvis via Boing Boing]

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