Explaining the Finical Crises
If you are having any trouble getting a clear understanding of what the basic causes of the finical crises are, here are two good explanations.
The first is a two part youtube video is only about 10 minutes long. This is my favorite explanation so far. It’s very well done.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Part 1
The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Part 2
The second is from the NPR show “This American Life“. It’s a recent episode called “Bad Bank“. It is longer, but it’s also very entertaining. They go into a little of of the “why” and “how to fix it” too. Personally I find there treatment of those questions wanting, but their explanation of how banks work and what the current problem is, is quite good.
If you read their notes on the show you will find a CSPAN video where Treasury Secretary Tim Geither praises the episode. This make me nervous, I have some serious disagreements with Geither policies. However I suppose that could be considered a sign that the show is just a good explanation of what is going on.
Naturally once you understand these two explinations, it’s time to move into asking more detailed questions about why this happened, and how to fix it. Hopefully I will write some more posts soon hilighting my favorite ideas.