not just the yank,s, i watched a little vid last night that explains how the money markets work (a bit long, but a REAL eye opener)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279
it basicly explains, that there,s less than 5% of "real" money (or gold, etc) swilling around in the world,s pot of finance, and the other 95%+ is purely debt (every time we sign a mortgage or loan or credit card transaction, that amount is added to the pot 
).
