Another Terrifying–but Illuminating- Report On How Screwed We Are
By Bradley Portnoy - Oct 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pmIf you’re anything like me, you’re trying and generally failing to understand what the hell is going on with the economy. The terms that are getting thrown around start with “credit default swaps” and only get more complicated from there–blame Goldman Sachs’ army of PhDs.
Luckily, the good people at This American Life, that bastion of public radio’s goodness, have put together a show that does its best to explain what’s happened in the last three weeks. It’s a follow-up to their show “The Giant Pool of Money,” which aired several months ago, and very worthwhile. I recommend listening to them both (you can stream old episodes at their site for free, and current episodes can be streamed or downloaded for free), because they really have shed some light on just where people screwed up. The new episode even tries its best to analyze the pros and cons of the bailout.
Bottom line: Yesterday I didn’t know that the commercial paper market existed, and now I know why it scared the crap out of Hank Paulson. NPR has picked up on the success of these two episodes and started a daily podcast called Planet Money, which tries to explains the daily goings on in the crisis. From the few episodes I’ve listened to, it’s quite worth 15 minutes a day.
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