Economic Armageddon for Dummies

For the last several months, I've been closely following the discussions - on the TF blog and elsewhere - about the rapidly escalating global economic crisis. I've read some excellent analyses of the situation (e.g. this one from Zerohedge https://bit.ly/iZvFzr).

I decided a few days ago that I wanted to make a very brief video that would boil this complex subject down to the most basic, general terms, to help this community of like-minded people explain it to other folks.

I spent several hours trying to write a brief summary of the situation (starting with, "Hello, I'm the U.S. Government ..."), and eventually realized that I couldn't do it, because - frankly - I don't actually understand what the hell is going on!

I understand the component pieces: currency devaluation is bad, excessive public & private debt is bad ... Martin Armstrong says the issue is that governments are getting to the point that they can't even pay the interest on their debts. I get that. But when I try to explain HOW all these things work together, and WHY the house of cards is falling down, I hit a brick wall.

Will you help me?

How would YOU answer the question, "What is happening to the economy, and why?"