I am still looking for an online version but essentially one of the stooges has a five dollar bill. Stooge two takes it to satisfy a debt owed to him by stooge one. Stooge three takes it from stooge two to satisfy a debt owed to him by stooge two.
I would add the following scene as well - stooge one then borrows five dollars from stooge three, and stooge two borrows the five dollars from stooge one. This whole scenario loops repeatedly until they all die of starvation while passing the single five dollar bill around.
Anyway, the point is the stooges were using slapstick to explain this absurdity to America back in the 1930's. Now there are layers upon layers of obfuscation in place to make it look like something that only economists and business people with multiple degrees in finance can understand.
note - still looking for that clip - if anyone knows the episode that I am talking about please post!
Link to previous du poster that has a better memory then I do:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021107725