The Giant Pool of Money, Explained
Kevin Kelly recommends the most recent episode of This American Life, which is about the housing mortage crisis. I heard a short version of it on NPR a few days ago and am looking forward to the full-length podcast.
By far the best explanation I've heard of the Housing Mortage/Credit Crisis is -- improbably -- a podcast from the motherlode of story-telling on NPR, This American Life. This podcast is a bit different from their usual slice-o-life stories in that they try to explain something extremely complex and abstract -- but in personal stories. The episode is called The Giant Pool of Money and it's worth at least an hour of your time on your next commute. Hearing the agents all along the "chain" of events describe what they [were] thinking in their own words is about 100 times better than reading about it.Link
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What was interesting about this particular episode was the joint venture between TAL and NPR News to create a slice of life news report. An exceptional program.
It was—and is—and excellent explanation of mortage/credit crisis and reminded me of the kind of reporting NPR used to do all the time... Not just during crises.
Heard this about a week ago or so....it was an extremely well done piece.
I too want to recommend this episode and the podcast is available now! I now feel like I have a decent layman's understanding ... where as a few days ago I was completely confused by how we go into this mess.
I love This American Life as it usually is, but I would love it if there could be a weekly show in this format as well. There are many complex, difficult problems in the world that would benefit from this kind of analysis: nuanced, non-judgmental, and easy to understand.
I listened to the whole episode last week. Excellent stuff.
The extended program has one problem. I now feel like finding and hitting with dead chicken the mortgage huckster they interviewed. Anyone who can earn $25,000 a month selling untenable debt and not meet their expenses needs to be hit with a dead chicken. I think this should be part of the next version of the National Recovery Act.
It should be noted that, for some reason, This American Life only keeps one episode at a time available in their podcast feed. After a week or so, the mp3 linked above will be gone.
The audio of the episode will still be available (in less portable format) via their Flash-based player accessible at this address: http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355
Makes me think about this performance art project called 'Homeless to Penthouse' - housing crisis indeed http://homelesstopenthouse.com
Nice. Except for the fact that it's the same 'creative' organization I just used for an entire chapter of my next book. Oh well. I've got different people saying basically the same things.
The weirder part, though, is that most of the people I spoke with had very little understanding of any part of the system that wasn't immediately adjacent to themselves.
The ones who did have some awareness of the other steps in the chain are now total paranoids-- storing water and duct tape and gold.
Catsgrin - I agree wholeheartedly; I would love to see this kind of collaboration happen more frequently.
The journalistic talents of NPR combined with the human insights of This American Life made this episode one I've been passing around a lot.
How absolutely amazing.
I used near these exact words to describe a similar podcast on April 3, on Fresh Air from Law professor Michael Greenberger
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89338743
I just listened to this episode today at the gym.
***SPOILER****
Is it wrong of me to think that the main loan huckster guy they interviewed got what he deserved now that he can't pay his own bills?
I thought they said that loan guy was making $1 million a year, and had a summer home in Connecticut plus something (presumably rented) in Manhattan. If he had set some money aside, he would've been fine. (And presumably he has some co-workers who "got out" with some money.)
The real problem is it was his first job out of college, so he got used to an "easy mortgage money" lifestyle. If he recalibrates his expectations he'll be okay.
I was expecting a lot more Scrooge McDuck related information than I got.
I listened to this on my phone this morning, and then when I got to my desk I ended up spending an hour posting to a message board pointing colleagues to the podcast, and then added a similar reccomendation to my blog.
If you liked that, you ought to be reading
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/
Look. Nothing else like it. (That's one of the sources thanked in the NPR program, and is very good thoughtful reading every day.)
#11, no... unfortunately, a lot of those making money hand over fist on commissions for doing all this money moving around got away with it leaving the lenders and the borrowers in the lurch...
I don't think it's "improbable" that professional storytellers would be good at explaining things.
Fascinating! Thanks.