An Hour Well-Spent
May 14th, 2008 by Dan Lavoie
Like many folks in the equity movement, I’ve been stunned and saddened by the sub-prime mortgage (and now credit) crisis. But, if I’m being honest, I haven’t actually UNDERSTOOD it at all.
I’ve tried. I read a bunch of news stories. I pored through The Economist and listened to Marketplace. But it never really sank in. How could this mess have gotten so bad and gone on so long?
Well, now I understand….and it’s thanks to the folks at This American Life. Yesterday, I finally got around to listening to the podcast of this past weekend’s show, “The Giant Pool of Money.”
It was a truly enlightening hour of radio, wherein they talk with folks all along the mortgage chain — from the high-flying Wall Street execs to under-trained mortgage middle men to a Marine facing foreclosure on his East Flatbush, NY, home. Here’s how they describe it:
A special program about the housing crisis. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.
Listen to the whole program here.
Tags: credit crisis, economic meltdown, economy, media, subprime mortgage, This American Life