Or rather, I love money. I would like a whole lot more of it. But I hate thinking about it. I loathe paying bills. I don’t like worrying about investments or retirements. I just hope for the best. So the whole global money crisis? I kind of understand it, but I usually just keep going when people start talking about it.
This American Life, which is my favorite radio show, did a story a few months ago about the whole mortgage crisis. They explained it in an easy-to-understand, interesting and delightful way (well, as delightful as the situation can make it.) The episode takes a whole hour, but instead of watching another Law and Order rerun tonight, how about you curl up with your laptop and have a listen? You will be so very glad you did. No matter who you are, you’ll learn something. Click here to have a listen.
I’d recommend continuing on with another installment here of This American Life about the economy. This episode was made a couple of weeks ago. This isn’t sensationalistic journalism, but rather an explanation of the current situation thoroughly and easily explained through personal stories and interviews. Not the least bit boring. If your entire knowledge of a run on banks has to do with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed not being able to go on their honeymoon, then you need to listen to this broadcast. Remember, I hate even thinking about money. So if I recommend it, it must be good!
If you have teens, you should require them to listen to at least the first one of these so they have a good idea of what’s going on. Even pre-teens could probably understand these episodes.
*Thanks to Barb, my bestie from high school, for the links to these.
Well articulated information. It is curious to me how they managed to tell that whole story with only a minor indictment of the federal governments role in the whole crisis. (Alan Greenspan soundbite) I think this story does much to enrage people anxious to blame “Wall Street greed”, but it absolutely fails to explore WHY, after a century, banks were suddenly motivated to make such risky loans. (Greed isn’t new)Part of it was “the world pool of money”, but the other part was, the compassionate US government (Fannie and Freddie, and the Democrat party) promised to guarantee loans to idiots and fools. Naturally, all the big guys wanted a piece of that government sponsored pie, and tried to compete with the subsidized Fannie and Freddie. The “greedy” guys had the green light to keep going every time a Federal Regulator raised a red flag, and our lovely congress decided they weren’t compassionate enough, and said they were just try to screw the down and out folks out of the American Dream. So they ignored all the warnings. Now they say they can fix it.
I wonder who these NPR hosts are voting for?
I am setting an appointment tonight to listen to this. Although I have a pretty good understanding of how this happened, I would love to hear another take on it.