Learn Economics in Five Minutes: Today’s lesson is balance sheet expansion and contraction. From the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, the central bank expanded its balance sheet by 1.5 trillion yuan over four months, and the CSI 300 surged 8.2%. In the first half of 2022, the balance sheet contracted by 1.2 trillion yuan over four months, and China’s A-shares dragged all year. In the same market, why does your money get wiped out whenever contraction happens? Today, use four questions to fully decode the underlying “secret code” that determines your account bonus rewards—what exactly are balance sheet expansion and contraction?