← Education/Track 00
Track 00
Free

How the money system works

Where money comes from, what central banks actually control, why rates and inflation move together, what government debt means, and how to check a claim about any of it. Each module teaches the mechanism, shows it in real data from the Fed, the Treasury, the IMF and the Bank of England, and lets you run it in a simulator.

10 modules · ~174 min total · 5 free, 5 for members
01
How money is created
Banks create deposits when they lend. Why the money multiplier fails the data, and what really limits lending.
20 min
FreeStart
02
What a central bank does
The policy rate, the central bank balance sheet, QE and QT, and why bank reserves aren't lent to the public.
15 min
FreeRead
03
Interest rates and inflation
Real versus nominal rates, breakeven inflation, why bond prices fall when yields rise, and what inflation does to savings and debt.
15 min
FreeRead
04
Government debt
What the US debt is, why debt to GDP is the yardstick, how 1946 to 1981 cut the ratio, the interest bill, and who holds the debt.
15 min
FreeRead
05
Test any claim
A five-step method for checking claims about money, plus confirmation bias and base rates, practised on real data.
15 min
FreeRead
06
The dollar, currencies and trade
Why every central bank holds dollars, how the US pays for buying more than it sells, and what a moving exchange rate does to a loan or a portfolio.
18 min
Network
07
Gold and reserves
Why gold stopped being money, why central banks are buying it again, where reserve gold is held, and what happened to Czechoslovakia's gold in 1939.
18 min
Network
08
Who owns the companies
Follow $100 into a company, see who holds US shares and casts the votes, and test the claim that three firms own everything.
18 min
Network
09
How crises happen
Borrowed money, an asset that can drop, funding that can run and a forced seller: 2008, Thailand 1997 and UK gilts in 2022.
20 min
Network
10
Empires and their debts
Three hundred years of UK war debt, how it came back down through arithmetic more than repayment, and how the pound lost its reserve role.
20 min
Network

5 of 10 modules are for Network and Partner members. Join from $999/yr.

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