HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from Quantitative Easing Explained Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Quantitative Easing Explained

malekanoms
Explainers
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2011–2018 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN pointed to it in 2011 as a nice, tongue-in-cheek explanation of quantitative easing.

An animated xtranormal explainer on quantitative easing, what the Federal Reserve was doing and how things got there. It was made by Omid Malekan.

“QE is Quantitative Easing which is nicely explained in this great xtranormal video” (HN, 2011)

2 recommendations · 1 citations · 1 critical · 1 jokes · Explainers · intro · partly dated

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@patrickk Mar 2011 Recommends
on HN thread Why Gas Is So Expensive Today (Hint: It’s Not Libya)
Read more
Thanks for those. Another interesting video, if you haven't seen it already - Quantitative Easing explained: [this video] " Printing money is the last refuge of failed economic empires and banana republics and the Fed doesn't want to admit this is their only idea. " Don't worry, it's (partially) tongue-in-cheek. "In other words, we will see massive inflation, possible even hyper-inflation." Do governments ever learn? This is what happened in the Weimar Republic and is happening today in Zimbabwe. Where I live (Ireland), the government is trying to do option 1 and 2, without success so far. Austerity measures are hurting the economy short-term by dampening consumer confidence (fortunately, internal consumption isn't everything, as we are an extremely open economy and will pick up as exports grow.) They'd possibly be trying option 3, except the European Central Bank controls our currency and ECB rules state that a country can't run a deficit over 3% of GDP without incurring major penalties.
Tongue-in-cheek explanation of quantitative easing.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@getsat Apr 2011 Cites it
on HN thread Online Cash Bitcoin could Challenge Governments, Banks
1) You won't have to worry about the quantitative easing when you're not using a fiat currency. [this video] 2) Read "A Lodging of Wayfaring Men". Fiction, but an example of the kind of change a system like BTC could usher in. [link] 3) You'd only convert as much as you need. > Is transferring BCs easier than writing a check? Yes. Enter address, enter amount, click send, wait a few minutes for the network to confirm the transaction.
Cited regarding quantitative easing and fiat currency.
@anonymoushn Jun 2011 Pushes back
on HN thread Groupon is a straight-up Ponzi scheme
While this is nearly true, it acts very slowly, and most people don't know how U.S. dollars work. Since everyone is robbed of some small value rather than a small group being robbed of all value, you can't expect people to notice. Unfortunately most attempts to explain to the general public how U.S. dollars work contain other assertions that are plainly ridiculous (see [link] or [link] ), and the more tame treatments of related issues lack depth ( [this video] ).
@pywh Mar 2018 Makes a joke
on HN thread Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]
Grantham on finite growth: [link] Grantham on finite resources: [link] There was a nifty quote in Green Mars. Think it went something like "need to shift from sustainable development to sustainable prosperity". And just for giggles: [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close