Quickie: the economic meltdown

This American Life has done a fantastic job covering the economic crisis with the Planet Money folks. After listening to their three episodes on the situation I feel like I actually understand what is being said on the news. I highly recommend checking it out to get a straightforward explanation of what is happening and how it came to be this way.

The Giant Pool of Money explains how people got mortgages they couldn't possibly afford, and how the inevitable foreclosures have affected Wall Street.

Another Frightening Show about the Economy explains how we went from a "sub-prime" mortgage crisis to a credit crisis, and what it means.

Bad Banks talks about the bank bailouts, how banks work, and how maybe it wasn't shady mortgage lenders after all (Did you know that we currently have a 1:1 debt to GDP ratio? Did you know that the last time that happened was 1929? Are you a little nervous yet?)

Each program is around 1hour, and it's told in a way that is understandable to the average layperson, and is interesting (and not dry). It's definitely time well spent. Or don't, and talk about something you don't really understand, like in the episode A little bit of Knowledge (one of the favorite TAL episodes among my friends)