ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Global financial crisis in 2009

Okay, so back in 2009, there was a big problem with money. Do you know what money is? It's what people use to buy things they need and want. Like toys, candy, and even houses. But sometimes, people can't afford to pay for everything they want right away, so they borrow money from banks.

Now, banks have a lot of money saved up from all the people who have accounts with them. And they lend this money out to people who need it, so they can buy things like houses or start businesses. But sometimes, these people can't pay the banks back the money they borrowed.

So what happened in 2009 is that a lot of people borrowed money they couldn't pay back, and the banks didn't have enough money anymore. This made the banks worried and they stopped lending money to people. When people couldn't borrow money anymore, they couldn't buy things they needed, like new cars, and businesses had a harder time making money too.

This caused a big problem around the world, because all the countries are connected in a way. When one country has a problem, it affects other countries too. And soon, everyone was worried about money and some businesses had to close or lay off workers.

It was a hard time for many people, but governments and banks worked together to try to fix the problem and make sure it wouldn't happen again. It took many years, but things slowly started to get better.