by Ericka Stephens-Rennie
Continuing on the rather delightful train of thought Andrew’s been riding lately, you might want to check out this episode of This American Life from Chicago Public Radio. It does a fantastic job of walking through the current global economic situation, looking through the eyes of people involved all along the economic spectrum:
A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? 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
This American Life producer Alex Blumberg teams up with NPR’s Adam Davidson for the entire hour to tell the story—the surprisingly entertaining story—of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis. They talk to people who were actually working in the housing, banking, finance and mortgage industries, about what they thought during the boom times, and why the bust happene.
Be sure to take a listen.
Wow. My knowledge of the workings of domestic and international economy multiplied expotentionally just listening to this, so I’m not really in a position to judge the accuracy of the interpretation. That said, I think this program did a really good job of explaining, step-by-step, just how we got into this mess. It’s amazing how we managed to delude ourselves into believing in a “free lunch,” not only our ground-level homeowners anxious for affordable mortgages but also people whose job it is to know these things and should know better…and every possible person in-between. Except for a few cases like Enron and the like, the rampant greed in our society demands less attention than the “flashier” sins like homosexuality and abortion. But it could end up impacting far more lives in far many more ways. Astounding and scary.
This American Life did another episode in this vein about a month ago: “Another Frightening Show About the Economy.” Again, the program goes a long way in helping us understand some of the machinations of the global economic system under our feet.