How the rich get richer - Money in the world economy _ DW Documentary
Welcome to FlickFrenzy!
Subscribe now and dive into a world where every flick is a new thrill!
Subscribe now and dive into a world where every flick is a new thrill!
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Never before has there been as much money as there is today, and rarely has money been
00:07so cheap.
00:09And yet the central banks continue to pump money into the world.
00:13We are being flooded by trillions of dollars and euros.
00:17It can't go on forever.
00:21It's a ticking time bomb.
00:24It's never been easier for investors to get their hands on cheap money.
00:28Setting up debts is practically free of charge.
00:31Organizations are just borrowing large amounts of money from each other and then using that
00:36to make money by lending it to others who are using that to lend it to others.
00:41A snowball system that lets the rich become even richer.
00:46Savers on the other hand are losing billions every year thanks to low interest rates.
00:53If you just open a savings account it's almost like burning money.
00:58This deluge of money has created deals worth billions.
01:02Companies are bought and sold for vast sums because loans are cheap.
01:07The employees become the pawns of the speculators.
01:11The question is, where's all this money going?
01:28We're in Bad Bordendorf in western Germany.
01:47This couple faces the same dilemma as many others.
01:51What to do with their savings in this world of low interest rates?
01:55Karl-Heinz Eich, a recently retired court bailiff, knows all about money and debts.
02:02His life insurance policy is due to pay out soon.
02:05How should he invest the money?
02:07In a house?
02:08They've already got one.
02:10There's a lot at stake for the cycling enthusiast.
02:14He and his wife want security in old age, as well as a good time.
02:21I was hoping that after the payout I'd be able to invest the money again and earn interest
02:28which could be added to our pension.
02:33But that plan isn't going to work out.
02:39Karl-Heinz has always led a modest life.
02:42He always stayed away from investments that paid high returns but were risky.
02:47He never thought it would come to this.
02:50He doesn't know what to do with interest rates this low and nor do his friends.
02:59Some have told me they won't keep their money in a bank account anymore.
03:03Instead, they'll deposit it as physical cash in a safe.
03:16It's barely worth going to the bank.
03:19Karl-Heinz's interest on savings is almost zero, at just 0.01 percent.
03:24That means that he gets one cent for every hundred euros, per year.
03:30What's happening with his money?
03:40People are worried, says the director of the local branch of Volksbank, Elmar Schmitz.
03:46Although there hasn't been a run on the safe deposit boxes yet, there have been more requests
03:52to keep money in cash or gold.
04:05We've seen a continuing fall in interest rates over the past eight years.
04:10I'd need a crystal ball to tell you whether it'll stay like this for long.
04:15I think we'll have this situation for another two or three years.
04:19After that, things will change again.
04:21But we won't have the interest rates we had ten or twenty years ago.
04:30The manager knows who he blames for these low interest rates.
04:34The European Central Bank.
04:41The remit of the ECB is clear.
04:43Price stability.
04:45It uses the base rate as its tool to deliver that.
04:48And it's been lowering the base rate steadily ever since the financial crisis, down to zero.
04:55Savers are left by the wayside, but countries with high levels of debt, such as Greece,
05:00are able to get their hands on cheap money.
05:03So too can ailing banks in southern Europe.
05:07The cheap money is supposed to fuel growth.
05:09By buying government bonds, the ECB has pumped additional trillions of euros into the markets.
05:16Otherwise the system would face potential collapse.
05:19The price of all this is a deluge of money.
05:22The money has to go somewhere, into shares and real estate, which continue to rise in
05:27price.
05:28The result is a massive concentration of wealth right at the top.
05:36Bill Gates, the world's richest man, has a fortune of 65 billion euros.
05:42That's the market value of his shares.
05:45To compare, the total value of all of the world's cash is less than 100 times that amount.
05:53Five trillion euros.
05:57The value of all goods and services created every year around the world is 75 trillion
06:02euros.
06:04That's the real economy.
06:05The world's debts are far higher than that.
06:08States, businesses and private individuals all have debts.
06:12A world living on credit.
06:14705 trillion.
06:17That's the value of all derivatives, the speculative financial bets on the future.
06:22They've got almost nothing to do with real goods anymore.
06:25To recap, this is the fortune of Bill Gates.
06:36What happens when there's too much money in the world?
06:40Economist Max Otter says this deluge of cheap money isn't just flooding the big banks.
06:46He sees low interest rates as the symptom of a massive sickness in the global financial
06:52system.
06:53What's more, cheap money endangers the entire economy and promotes increasing levels of
07:00debt.
07:02He says those who believe that with the financial crisis of 2008 receding, things are now better
07:08again are much mistaken.
07:13This influx of money is extremely dangerous.
07:15It's slow, but at some point the dam will burst and then we'll be in a huge crisis.
07:22The biggest danger is that this flood of cheap money will split our society.
07:27It moves money from the bottom upwards, he says.
07:31A gigantic redistribution machine.
07:39Low interest rates are demanded by many economists.
07:42They mean that states can borrow on the cheap.
07:45States can take on more debt.
07:47It also means the rich can do the same and often without any liability if they default.
07:52If I, as one of the super-rich, buy a business, then I'm only liable to the extent of my holding,
07:58not with the rest of my wealth.
08:00That's a blatant injustice compared to middle-class families and regular people with home construction
08:05laws.
08:07This flood of money doesn't just save states and banks.
08:11It also favors the rich, who use this cheap money to buy shares, companies and real estate
08:17with rapidly rising values, while the financial investments of ordinary people lose value.
08:24The middle classes have savings and insurance policies,
08:28and these investments are the losers in a low interest rate world.
08:32Poorer citizens suffer because real estate prices are going up and therefore rents too.
08:45London, the world's largest financial center, illustrates very clearly the effect of this
08:51monetary deluge. Trillions are traded here.
08:54300,000 employees in the financial sector are trying to turn money into even more money.
09:01London's own real estate prices are skyrocketing.
09:04All the major banks have offices here.
09:07This is where the money of the world's rich is invested.
09:14Roman Borisovich knows the scene well.
09:17There are neighborhoods where millionaires are being pushed out by billionaires.
09:21Borisovich is fighting against a sell-off of the City of London to speculators.
09:27Together with colleagues, he has researched the anonymous owners of several properties.
09:33As a former banker, he's familiar with price developments.
09:38Well, these are muse houses.
09:40And again, depending on the size, it's difficult to say how deep they are.
09:44But anywhere between 3 to 5, maybe 5 to 7 million.
09:49In this particular area, 5 to 7 million pounds.
09:53Now, if you think about muse houses, this is a family place.
09:58Just think about what kind of family can afford to buy a house for 3 million pounds.
10:04What kind of family can afford to buy a house for 3 to 5, even for 5 to 7 million pounds?
10:13The expensive houses are all speculative objects and empty.
10:18London belongs to investors who don't live in the city.
10:22Roman Borisovich discovered that this townhouse was sold to a Ukrainian billionaire for 66 million pounds.
10:35On paper, the mansion is owned by a shell company.
10:41Right now, there is in excess of 40,000 properties in London that are owned by anonymous offshore corporations.
10:49Meaning that we don't know who the owners are.
10:52They could be decent people, they could be mafia.
10:55Therefore, we suspect that a lot of this money that came through London,
11:00that exploded prices here, is actually of dirty origin.
11:07There's construction underway everywhere.
11:10Speculating with real estate is the big game in town.
11:14Trillions of euros from Russians, Germans, Chinese and Indians have poured into London.
11:23From a socio-economic perspective, it is not sustainable.
11:26You cannot have a city where residents and workers cannot live.
11:31The problem with bubbles is that nobody knows when they're going to burst.
11:38But London doesn't have a monopoly on real estate bubbles.
11:42They now exist in cities around the world.
11:47If a real estate bubble were to burst, sure, it would hit the wealthy who are invested there.
11:53But they have a diverse investment portfolio.
11:56They seize opportunities around the world.
11:59If the real estate bubble in Munich were to burst, they'll be in Rio or Tokyo.
12:04They can act globally, but the middle class can't.
12:10As seen in the financial crisis of 2008, the middle class is hit,
12:15while the rich get richer in times of boom and bust.
12:19Not much has changed.
12:21The minor regulations introduced into the financial sector aren't very tangible here in London.
12:27The speculators are looking for new ways to make more money in the world's number one financial centre.
12:34Many transactions are now taking place in the shadow banking system.
12:39The bonuses for lucrative deals are as plentiful as ever.
12:43And Brexit will see the regulations relaxed even further.
12:48The show must go on.
12:52Alf Townsend has lived through it all.
12:54He's been driving a taxi for 54 years, chauffeuring bankers and brokers around the city.
13:00Dealing in the world's trillions has become the trump card of the British economy, he says, optimistically.
13:07It's beneficial to London.
13:09I think it's those people who invest, whatever part of the world they come from,
13:16if they want to invest their money in the city, that's good for the British economy.
13:24He too has profited.
13:26But in exchange, Alf has to live far outside the city centre.
13:30A million pounds for a single room apartment?
13:33No ordinary local can afford that.
13:37There's not many Londoners, apart from us old people, who still live in London.
13:42Most of them have sold their houses, as I was saying earlier.
13:45Bought their houses off the council, made a fat profit, sold it and moved out to a suburban hideaway.
13:55Some leave the city entirely, and forever.
14:03Geraint Anderson was one of London's financial stars.
14:07He now lives in Wales.
14:09He paid the same for his farm as he would have to pay for a tiny single room apartment in downtown London.
14:16But that's not the only reason why he came here.
14:19He's had enough of the financial excesses.
14:24The city is full of greedy, ruthless, clever people.
14:27And if they put a bit more regulation, a little bit more compliance, some restrictions,
14:33these guys work out how to game the system to make sure that it benefits them.
14:40Today he writes novels and screenplays about the financial world.
14:45He used to earn a few hundred thousand pounds a year.
14:49He didn't care who the trades hurt.
14:52That's a few years ago now.
14:54But nothing has changed, says Anderson.
14:57The system rewards those who make fat deals at the expense of others.
15:09If I make lots of strange gambles, incredible reckless decisions, but they come good,
15:14then I make huge amounts of money.
15:17If they go bad, maybe I lose my job.
15:20But that's the only downside.
15:22So this is what is called an asymmetrical risk.
15:24It encourages short-term gambling.
15:32Anderson is certain that the financial system will keep growing and sprawling.
15:38The prospects of big profits, the low interest rates, the deluge of money.
15:43The former financial insider believes these elements make for an explosive mix.
15:51The Ponzi system that exists is such that organisations are just borrowing large amounts of money from each other
15:59and then using that to make money by lending it to others who are using that to lend it to others,
16:05which means that you have a system where ultimately no one's really got the money that backs up
16:14all the money that's being lent out.
16:16Subsequently, when that system comes crashing down, then it's goodnight.
16:27Attacks on speculative financial transactions could slow this merry-go-round.
16:33However, this financial transactions tax would need to be introduced globally.
16:39But even the small-scale version with just 10 EU states failed after years of negotiations,
16:46even though German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble personally pushed for this tax.
16:52But Britain was against it and will be even more against it in the future.
16:57London as a financial centre would suffer.
17:00That's most regrettable, because this tax would be the necessary surgery for the sick financial system.
17:06The ECB and other central banks flooding the world with cheap money isn't a cure.
17:12It's just pain relief, and in the long run it has serious side effects.
17:17The entire set-up is a system that keeps saving itself temporarily,
17:22but at some point it will inevitably fall apart.
17:30Until then, it exacerbates the enormous injustice that already exists.
17:36Those who have, benefit.
17:38A handful of super-rich individuals own as much as the poorer half of the world's population combined.
17:45This flood of money is increasing the gap between rich and poor even further.
17:53People like these are struggling at the hands of low interest rates.
17:57Karl-Heinz Eich and his friends are worried.
18:00In the past, the world was a veritable paradise for savers.
18:04The economy was booming and interest rates were high, even if inflation was, too.
18:10Nevertheless, successive generations lived by the motto,
18:14those who save, get more out of life.
18:20In the past, you could rely on a certain interest rate for your savings account.
18:25You could live with that.
18:28But not anymore.
18:32In the 70s, we got a fixed rate of 7%.
18:37For a short while, we got 11%.
18:42Karl-Heinz Eich has an appointment with his financial advisor at the bank.
18:47What should he do with his money?
18:56We have this account.
18:58Next year, a life insurance policy will mature.
19:02What can we do with this money?
19:09The advisor wants to know about her client's readiness to take risks.
19:14He is actually more risk-averse and wants to invest his insurance money as broadly as possible.
19:20Every day it sits in the savings account, it loses purchasing power.
19:25And he knows that.
19:29Since you're getting almost no interest, we have to see where we can generate a return.
19:36And that means stocks and shares.
19:40Investing more in property bonds and shares?
19:44That's what his bank advises.
19:46What else can he do in times like these?
19:52I don't feel uneasy or really comfortable with the idea,
19:56although I've generally had positive experiences to date.
20:02Shares, property bonds, higher risk?
20:06Whether he likes it or not,
20:08Karl-Heinz Eich has to participate in the game of the big financial world.
20:13It's an industry in party mood.
20:15Big companies are buying up competitors thanks to low interest rates,
20:20thereby increasing their share value.
20:23Only shareholders benefit from this strategy, and they tend to be affluent.
20:28German chemical giant Bayer bought American seed supplier Monsanto, for example,
20:34for 65 billion euros.
20:41The world's largest brewery, Anheuser-Busch InBev,
20:45swallowed the number two, S.A.B. Miller,
20:48for the equivalent of over 100 billion euros.
20:52And software giant Microsoft bought professional networking site LinkedIn
20:57for 26 billion.
20:59Companies as the playthings of international financial interests.
21:07A less prominent case,
21:09WMF has been based in Geislingen in southwest Germany
21:13since the mid-19th century.
21:15WMF has been based in Geislingen in southwest Germany
21:19since the mid-19th century.
21:21It's a brand with a world-class reputation.
21:24WMF manufactures cutlery and coffee makers.
21:28It used to be in the hands of German owners and shareholders.
21:32Its operations meant security for thousands of families.
21:36Then the financial gamblers set their sights on WMF.
21:45The company has changed owners three times in the past 11 years.
21:50Every time it's sold, the price goes up enormously.
21:54At the same time, wages and working conditions have worsened.
21:59There were massive protests.
22:03When the company was taken over by French group SEB,
22:07Martin Porschke hoped things would finally get better again.
22:12He's on his way to a WMF works meeting
22:15on behalf of the IG Metall labor union.
22:22He thinks it's symptomatic of today's age
22:25how easily a deal worth billions is made.
22:28The investors at the big banks can get their hands on cheap money,
22:32no problem.
22:33The new owner paid 1.6 billion euros.
22:38It's so easy for investors to buy and sell businesses
22:42and achieve huge profits.
22:44You'd never achieve that through a company's day-to-day operations.
22:48The question for me is, to what extent is it harmful
22:52when jobs become a pawn in this game?
22:59A works meeting during unsettling times at WMF.
23:04What are the prospects with the new owner?
23:07The staff have had bad experiences in the past.
23:13We've been milked like a cow, bled dry.
23:16When there's nothing left to get out, we're sold off.
23:20It's been that way for years. Everyone lines their pockets.
23:25We can only hope the company survives and that calm is restored.
23:30At least the employees are told today
23:33that the new buyers do not intend to cannibalize WMF further
23:38before selling it on.
23:40But union representative Martin Puschke
23:43knows the only way such deals can be paid for
23:46is through extremely low interest rates on loans.
23:54The deal at WMF went as follows.
23:57New York-based equity firm KKR bought WMF for around €660m
24:05via a subsidiary located in a tax haven.
24:09KKR used €100m of their own capital
24:13and borrowed €560m from banks.
24:19Four years later, KKR sold WMF
24:22to French household equipment maker SEB for €1.6bn,
24:27a deal supported by very low interest rates.
24:31KKR made a profit of €940m after repaying the loan
24:37and investing just €100m of its own capital.
24:41That's a return of more than 800%.
24:45A lucrative deal, but only for KKR shareholders.
24:50That's possible because at the moment
24:52there's enough money on the global market.
24:55Other investors are able to pay such prices.
24:58If the money weren't there,
25:00they wouldn't be able to shift such volumes.
25:06Loans for almost nothing.
25:08That's the flip side of the money deluge.
25:11Financial investors do deals with huge sums
25:14that would have been unthinkable in the past
25:17in a regulated financial system.
25:20Today, many wish for a return to those times.
25:24The deregulation of the financial world has a long history.
25:34Until 1971, the world was financially stable.
25:38Currencies were covered by gold.
25:40The real economy was in balance with the amount of money available.
25:45Then US President Nixon needed money for the Vietnam War.
25:49He switched on the money printing machine.
25:52Not least because OPEC had increased oil prices.
25:56This money then flooded the world.
26:00Banks came up with new investment models.
26:03They now wanted to make money not with goods, but with money alone.
26:08This was the start of the financial industry of today.
26:15Credit cards and current accounts accelerated financial transactions.
26:20Former public responsibilities were privatised.
26:24Pensions are a case in point.
26:26The private sector is better at everything than the state.
26:30So, they said, new billions came into play.
26:35In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher deregulated the banks in London.
26:40Bill Clinton did the same later on Wall Street.
26:43Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Germany then also bought into the deregulation philosophy.
26:50Money was to earn money and thereby create growth.
26:53The global casino was open for business.
26:57The path of liberalisation was a mistake.
27:00It's the wrong word, too.
27:02If you deregulate markets that need to be regulated, then you create chaos.
27:07You unleash an avalanche of money onto the world.
27:11You can call that liberalisation, but it was a policy that benefited only a few people, namely the rich.
27:18It has caused a lot of problems for the world.
27:24The liberalisation, or deregulation, allowed the deals of the banks to explode.
27:30They now acted internationally.
27:33Major banks have become investment establishments that fund huge deals.
27:38More and more money goes into speculation.
27:41That's where the big money is made.
27:44This has less and less to do with the real economy.
27:47Are the central banks alone responsible for this influx of money?
27:52Or where does it all come from?
27:55Economic students in Siegen, Germany, are investigating just that.
28:00What do people know about the origin of money? That's what they want to find out.
28:05We're from the University of Siegen. We're doing a research project about money.
28:09What does money mean to you?
28:11You can't do anything without money.
28:13Where does the money come from?
28:16Not from me, that's for sure.
28:19How is money made?
28:22Through work, of course.
28:26I'm not sure.
28:28In banks?
28:30By the state?
28:33I couldn't tell you.
28:36The responses were sobering.
28:41It was really varied. A lot of people had no response at all.
28:44Some said the bank, or that it's just printed.
28:47And some mentioned manipulation.
28:50But most had no idea.
28:53For years, financial expert Helge Peukert has been annoyed
28:57that money plays almost no role in economics.
29:01Many consider it just a neutral means of exchange.
29:09It's strange that it's not just the public who are in the dark.
29:13The students' street survey demonstrated that well enough.
29:18But the money creation process also seems to be something of a mystery
29:22among academics and even in the banking boardrooms.
29:28The banks are silent for a reason.
29:30They would have to explain to their customers
29:33that these days it's them creating the money
29:36and them benefiting hugely as a result.
29:39As Peukert explains, money isn't neutral after all.
29:43It's not the central banks,
29:45but private banks that generate most of this new money.
29:49A process also known as deposit money creation.
29:54Money is created when someone goes to a bank to take out a loan.
29:59The bank opens an account and issues the funds.
30:03It's then in a contract with the individual who's taken out the loan.
30:08The bank hopes that person will pay it back someday.
30:12That means the original impulse to create money comes from private banks.
30:23That's new to most people.
30:27Many think a loan works like this.
30:30Savers take money to the bank and the bank loans this money to a customer,
30:35such as someone buying a house or running a business.
30:42But that's not the case.
30:44If someone has savings, their money is parked in a savings account.
30:47The advantage for the bank is that person can't just take it out.
30:51When the bank issues a loan, it's created from nothing.
30:54These two processes really don't have anything to do with each other,
30:58even though it looks that way and even though that's what the textbooks say.
31:03This is how it works.
31:05A customer wants to take out a loan for 10,000 euros.
31:09The bank has to deposit between 1 and 3 percent,
31:12so at least 100 euros, with the central bank.
31:16That's it.
31:17In return, the bank is allowed to transfer 10,000 euros
31:21to the customer's account at the push of a button.
31:24The bank generates 10,000 euros of electronic money from 100 euros
31:29and in return it collects the interest.
31:32This creation of deposit money is a license to make money.
31:37The banks are happy, of course, that they can do this,
31:41because that gives them a free rein.
31:43They get to keep the profits, the seniorage.
31:46That's a few billion every year.
31:48Who'd want to miss out on that? Definitely not them.
31:53Private banks basically create new money as they wish.
31:56That used to be the privilege of the mint, of princes and governments.
32:01It's a privilege to create money and therefore profits, out of nothing.
32:05This privilege has been in the hands of the financial industry for a long time
32:10and in recent years it's been unchecked.
32:13Is that really such a good idea?
32:20The big banks in particular
32:22have massively increased the money deluge in this way.
32:25As a way of imposing more controls on the financial system again,
32:29private banks could be deprived of the privilege of creating money.
32:34Developments are already underfoot in Switzerland.
32:42Zurich is a popular location with banks.
32:45There's an initiative here that advocates reining in the Swiss banks.
32:50In future, it says, only the national banks should be allowed to create money,
32:55not private banks anymore.
32:57The initiative is fighting for fully backed money
33:00and an end to the privilege of big banks
33:03to generate electronic money at the push of a button.
33:12Reinhold Harringer used to be city treasurer in St. Gallen.
33:17It was then he understood that we can't carry on with limitless loans and debts.
33:2490% of all our money is just numbers on a computer in a bank somewhere.
33:30The banks make this money.
33:32That's what we find worrying and that's what we want to change.
33:38Great things have small beginnings.
33:42But members of the initiative are striking a chord with many passers-by.
33:48They distrust the financial system.
33:52The major banks are creating a spiral of loans and debt with their money creation.
34:00I'm a former banker, now retired.
34:02I can't say that with pride anymore.
34:05They're casinos now.
34:12The manipulation happens everywhere.
34:16We and the future generation are being robbed.
34:22At the moment, it's primarily the big banks
34:25who are pocketing the profits of this money-making enterprise.
34:29The Swiss initiative wants these billions to benefit the country's citizens
34:34by only allowing the national bank to create money.
34:38We want to take away the right of banks to create money,
34:42but we're not taking away a line of business.
34:45They'll still be allowed to lend money and manage assets
34:48and oversee financial transactions.
34:51The banks get to keep all of that.
34:54They want their national bank to play a key role in the future.
35:05Private banks would only be allowed to issue loans
35:08if they have the money in their vaults 100% secure.
35:13Private banks would not be allowed to create deposit money anymore.
35:17And the profits from this privilege would also benefit the national bank.
35:22The general public are the winners.
35:24The national bank is obligated to look after their well-being.
35:36The group want the creation of money to be state-controlled
35:40and not in the hands of private banks.
35:44Billions in interest payments would then flow into the public purse.
35:52I support these various initiatives.
35:54Banks wouldn't be able to create new money.
35:57They'd have to work with the money they have and deposits.
36:00That's a good first step.
36:02It's not enough, but it's an important step on the path
36:05towards a fair financial system.
36:13It appears absurd.
36:15On the one hand, the world is flooded with cheap money.
36:18But at the same time, some places have none.
36:21The places that don't offer big profits right away,
36:25but that in the long term would benefit the future of our society.
36:32We're at the Impact Hub in Munich, an office space for start-ups.
36:37A space for companies that have innovative ideas for the future.
36:41New technologies, sustainable solutions for our problems.
36:45But there's no money here.
36:55Laurin Hahn and his team are working on a car for the future, for example.
37:00Their baby goes by the name Xeon,
37:03a small electric car that generates some of its own electricity.
37:09The city runaround is designed to access electricity
37:13from the well-protected solar cells on the car body.
37:17It will also source electricity from a battery.
37:21It's an inexpensive and highly eco-friendly electric car.
37:29Developing the Xeon costs money.
37:32And no bank wants to stump up this money, says Laurin Hahn.
37:36Start-ups like his don't stand a chance of getting a loan from a bank,
37:41even though there's more than enough money available.
37:45Banks are out of the question, we're too risky.
37:49Banks prefer to invest in infrastructure or the like,
37:53something that's long-term and safe, where the loan is secured.
37:58If our company goes bankrupt, they have virtually nothing they could recoup.
38:07Laurin Hahn had to collect money from private donors online.
38:11Venture capital. No loans for their projects.
38:15That's the central issue for young entrepreneurs.
38:18They can't get their hands on any of this cheap money.
38:27At the end of the day, it's not about money, but about creating opportunities,
38:31so that people who want to do something can do something.
38:35If you don't invest in that, or the start-ups can't access money easily
38:39and can't develop easily, then they'll move country.
38:44There are lots of entrepreneurs here who want to push forward
38:47sustainable products and services.
38:50Products where the consequences for people and the environment
38:53are taken into account from the word go.
38:56Products designed to create value for society.
38:59I think it's a scandal that companies like this struggle so much
39:03to access funding from banks or major investors.
39:09Karl-Heinz Eich in Bad Bodendorf invests in the traditional fashion.
39:14He's received the money from his insurance policy.
39:17And he's made a decision.
39:19He's looking at his house with a painter and decorator.
39:23He wants to invest some of the money in renovations.
39:27A fixed-asset investment.
39:29A strategy to circumvent the low interest rates.
39:36Karl-Heinz Eich has realized in recent months
39:39how important it is to pay attention to money matters.
39:46The times when we could hand over our responsibility
39:49at the cashier's desk are over.
39:52Maybe he'll be fortunate.
39:54But one thing is certain.
39:56The sick financial system is going to cost us a lot of money.
40:02I don't think anyone will come out of this situation unscathed.
40:06We've been living on loans.
40:08There will be wealth destruction.
40:10The current financial system is very likely to lead to the next disaster.
40:14We need a different system.
40:16But it would be enough if we just returned to what we had.
40:19Highly regulated financial markets
40:22and a banking sector under control and whose purpose was to serve.
40:30We have to rein in the world's financial system.
40:33But exactly the opposite is happening in the United States under Donald Trump.
40:38To make the system safer for people,
40:41a system like that envisaged by the Swiss initiative
40:44could be one building block.
40:46In particular, states have to reduce their massive debts.
40:50It's the only way we can curb this deluge of money
40:53and break through the spiral of loans.
40:56That's also why we need international debt conferences,
41:00where states mutually waive their debts.
41:03It's us, the people, who foot the bill.
41:11Big banks must cover their loans
41:13with more of their own capital than they do today.
41:21There needs to be a global tax on financial transactions.
41:25And money needs to go to places where it benefits society
41:30for our future's sake.
41:35The interests of the financial industry
41:38have determined developments in politics and society for far too long.
41:43Trump and Brexit mustn't be allowed to fuel that even further.
41:48Money is far too important to be left to the banks alone.
42:18For more UN videos visit www.un.org