Hacking a Fairer Future for Global Finance

What if you could hack the global economy and reboot it to be fairer?

That bold idea powers The Economy Reboot, a new animated series that turns complex financial injustices into an epic adventure.

Created as a prototype by Our Future Agenda’s Story Lab initiative, the series was designed to make global policy clear, accessible, and inspiring for young people.

It follows a teenage hacker hero through a virtual world of corrupt code and boss battles – all to spark a generation’s imagination about fixing the world’s financial system.

Inspiration Behind the Story Lab Series

The series was born from a simple realization: too often, global issues like debt and development finance feel distant and dull to the very young people who have the most at stake. Story Lab – an initiative of the Unlock the Future coalition – set out to change that by transforming dry policy debates into engaging narratives.

The Economy Reboot is a pilot that shows how storytelling can bridge the gap between UN conference halls and the daily lives of young people in developed and developing regions. The animation series embodies this mission, connecting everyday experiences (like struggling to afford school or healthcare) with global policies in a way that’s fun and easy to grasp. It’s a crash course in economic justice wrapped in an adventure narrative.

Watch The Economy Reboot

Meet Jacob

15-Year-Old Coder for Justice

At the heart of *The Economy Reboot* is Jacob, a 15-year-old coder from the Global North with a serious bone to pick with the status quo. Tech-savvy and fearless, Jacob discovers a hidden virtual dimension called “The Economy” – essentially a colossal simulation of the world’s financial system. When he jacks in, he finds that this digital realm is plagued by injustices coded into its very operating rules.

Glitches in the system manifest as poverty and inequality in the real world. Jacob takes it upon himself to challenge these systemic bugs head-on. Armed with his laptop, quick wits, and a sense of global solidarity, he navigates treacherous cyber-lands representing everything from predatory lending to tax havens.

For a kid who grew up comfortable in the North, it’s an eye-opening journey – Jacob sees firsthand how the odds are stacked against communities in the Global South. Guided by virtual allies (and a few mentor characters he meets in-game), he hacks the global financial system to expose corruption, bypass firewalls of greed, and rewrite bits of the code that keep billions of people trapped in unfair circumstances. In essence, Jacob becomes a digital Robin Hood – stealing back power from faceless financial algorithms and giving hope to those whom the real-world economy has left behind. His age and background make him an unlikely hero, but that’s the point: *The Economy Reboot* shows that youth from anywhere in the world can be allies in the fight for a fairer global system.

3.3 billion – that’s how many people live in countries spending more on repaying debt than on health or education. These staggering real-world numbers drive home why Jacob’s mission matters. The Economy Reboot doesn’t shy away from the truth that our global financial system is “game over” for far too many – but it shows that with the right upgrades” (policies), we can all debug the system.

From the UN Stage to You

The Economy Reboot premiered to world leaders and experts at the United Nations’ Fourth Financing for Development conference (FFD4) in early July 2025 – a fitting venue, since FFD4 itself is all about overhauling the global financial architecture. The premiere at FFD4 underscores how seriously youth voices are being taken in these discussions. It’s not every day that a cartoon screens at a high-level UN conference, and The Economy Reboot earned that spotlight by packaging urgent truths in a compelling way.

The series was then shared with a global audience at its public launch on 23 July, as part of the Pitstop 3 event, a youth-driven forum for innovation and action.

The series was then shared with a global audience at its public launch on 23 July, as part of the Pitstop 3 event, a youth-driven forum for innovation and action. As The Economy Reboot reached screens around the world, helping galvanise interest and engagement around global economic reform. The series stands as a prototype for how a new generation can be brought into the complex work of reshaping economic systems. Jacob’s journey showed that young people can question the logic of the current system and imagine alternatives that push beyond familiar limits. Through creativity and courage, entrenched economic injustices can be challenged and ultimately transformed.

From the UN Stage to You

The impact of The Economy Reboot is already extending beyond the screen. The series premiered to world leaders and experts at the United Nations’ Fourth Financing for Development conference (FFD4) in early July 2025 – a fitting venue, since FFD4 itself is all about overhauling the global financial architecture. The premiere at FFD4 underscores how seriously youth voices are being taken in these discussions. It’s not every day that a cartoon screens at a high-level UN conference, and The Economy Reboot earned that spotlight by packaging urgent truths in a compelling way.

The series was then shared with a global audience at its public launch on 23 July, as part of the Pitstop 3 event, a youth-driven forum for innovation and action. As As the series hits screens this July, it will do more than entertain – it will galvanize. The series is a prototype for how we can engage a new generation in the heavy lifting of global economic reform. If Jacob’s journey teaches us anything, it’s that no one is too young to question the code of the current system, and no idea is too radical when the status quo is not working. With creativity and courage, even the most entrenched economic injustices can be challenged – and eventually, defeated. The message to young people is clear: log on, level up, and let’s reboot this economy together.