elegation's posterous - Filed under 'NPR'

Alarming News from Straight Shooting Reporter

I'm catching up on old posts from the week, this one from 4 days ago is pretty alarming. In my mind, the NPR reports have been the most straight shooting reporters on the economic crisis. The AIG bonuses have crystallized/embodied that the bailouts have not been fair, and have been executed poorly. Hopefully we will learn from this costly mistake.

"So, my modest proposal of things to be outraged about instead (or, at least, in addition) to the bonuses:

- The pathetic lack of global unity in the response (I'm looking at you: Europe).

- The fact that Congress still doesn't understand the issues well enough to create a coherent response.

- The fact that nobody understands Treasury's real plan and the vagueness of it makes us all suspicious that either there is no plan or they are hiding something from us.

- The stunning lack of reflection from the leadership of banks, ratings agencies, regulators, Congress, the Administration, media, etc, for their culpability.

- The lack of bold, forward-thinking responses. The Administration(s), Congress, and much of the rest of the world seem to constantly be fighting the last fight and catching up on the fly. That is not how it has to be. They can get in front of this--take bold, painful action, and clearly tell us why.

"I've felt more afraid today than I have in months. I was assuming that the government would, eventually, solve things. They'd try a lot of bad ideas, they'd be late and imperfect and inefficient. But they'd solve things. Today -- it's just a feeling -- but I started thinking that maybe they won't solve things. Maybe they'll be so politicized and so populist that the economy will collapse."

via planet money blog from npr

Filed under // economy NPR planet money blog

Comments [0]

This American Life Explains the Financial Crisis in 59 Minutes [Money]

Excellent program. I finally got around to listening to it, and now subscribed to the "Planet Money" blog. The authors help put in plain language the current financial situation.

This American Life Explains the Financial Crisis in 59 Minutes [Money]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 3/6/09

NPR radio show This American Life tackled the financial crisis last weekend, explaining the collapse of the banking system in 59 compelling minutes. Photo by wwarby.

For instance, when we talk about an insolvent bank, what does it actually mean, and why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to rich bankers who screwed up their own businesses?

If you've got the time to put on your headphones and listen while you finish out the work week, it's a good listen.

Bad Bank [This American Life via Open Culture]