There is one thing always confused me: People always say that financial crisis destroyed trillions dollar worth of wealth
Based on general economy definition, only consumable goods and services are wealth, money is just a medium of exchange. So, if a house used to worth 5 million now worths 3 million, the actual wealth (the house) do not change, it is just the price of the house changed, and I think this price change are mainly caused by two things: money supply and people's desire
In my opinion, only war or natural disaster can really destroy wealth massively, any kind of financial loss is just a illusion, since people mistakenly think that money is wealth
The real question is: The country as a whole did not lose any wealth in the financial crisis, but why many people are getting poorer and the real tangible and consumable products are getting less produced?
Money is not only an exchange medium, but also a temporary storage of wealth. People can 'store' some of their wealth in money, stocks and bonds, in order to postpone acquisition of what you call 'real wealth'.
You are right when you state the house itself does not change during a 'crisis' (whatever the exact scientifically economic definition of that may be), but it's value on the market does. So there will be people in the 'consumer class' who acquired a house for 5 and are (forcibly?) selling it for 3, or end up with a value of 3 but with a debt of 5.
This price changing mechanism simply transfers wealth from the consumer class to the bankers class.
Same with inflation, in the sense of inflating the money supply.
If a bank prints money, the bank can spend it by loaning it to a consumer, who now owes the bank and spends it at the original value. After spending, the money supply has increased with the spent amount, say x%, so now the money for all consumers has a value of x% less than before that money was created and spent. That is a transfer of wealth from the consumer class to the bankers class, and, through the interest due, from the original consumer to the bank.
These are in my view the mechanisms through which the wealth of the consumer class is transferred to the bankers class.