People who hang around me long enough are usually subjected to a stream-of-consciousness style babble about various political and economic facts which most people find boring, but I tend to find amazingly pertinent to my everyday life. Aside from me pushing the power of investing in the video game sector (which seems to be recession proof) I like to know why things in the greater economy are happening. Why so much interest in something as stale sounding as interest rate trends, foreclosure rates and credit crunches? Because it affects everything in our daily lives, from property taxes, the rate on our credit cards and the price of everything we buy, not to mention affecting the stability of our jobs.
The problem arrives from the idea that the way this information is presented is usually less exciting than watching bread go stale. Thankfully, some very smart and funny people step in to take up the slack in these departments. Whether it’s the Daily Show making politics not only interesting, but downright hilarious, or the guys who wrote “Freakonomics” making the fascinating connection between the No Child Left Behind program and teacher cheating.
Which leads me to the radio program “This American Life”. TAL is an excellent Radio and Television show that entertains as effortlessly as it informs. Specifically, this podcast is the best explanation I’ve ever heard about how we’ve ended up where we are with this stalled economy and the housing crisis. It’s told from a neutral perspective with a focus on the facts and how interesting they are when you strip away all the boring aspects. If you’re curious at all (or want to be!) about how the housing market crashed and dragged down the economy, this is definitely worth a listen!
Click here to be taken to the page where you can stream This American Life’s “The Giant Pool of Money” (stream link on the left.)
michelle
May 20, 2008 at 1:54 PM
I’m not a big NPR fan, but this was a very interesting story. It’s amazing that they got away with that without anyone going to jail.
John
May 20, 2008 at 2:04 PM
And how! Heck, they were getting an award for it in the show!!! Simply amazing..
michelle
May 21, 2008 at 8:40 AM
Now can they do the same to show the global pool of money going to drive up the cost of oil? I’m curious if that’s the great new place to put their 70 trillion dollars in at the cost of all the little people who need it.
John
May 21, 2008 at 9:19 AM
Interestingly enough, that’s part of the reason why the cost of oil has been going so high in recent years. All those developing countries that have growing economies are entering the modern era leading to things like a growing global pool of money, but more importantly, allowing for things like a middle class in China and India.
They, like most Americans want to own things like automobiles, and go on trips. Considering that we only have 300 million people in this country and they have a combined total of 2.4 BILLION people, even a small fraction of the population moving into our middle-class lifestyle will drive the price of oil (a finite resource) much higher than it currently is. Investors know that, so they’re willing to buy oil “futures” (a bet on the future price of a barrel of oil) for continually higher rates.
Much of that “pool of money” comes from those countrys’ personal savings (think 401k, IRA) and them investing in our higher return (and evidently, higher risk!) savings vehicles, including bundled mortgages. Hence, we come full circle..
The Morrison Family » Planet Money - Economic info made easy!
September 19, 2008 at 7:55 AM
[...] - If any of you you listened to and were insterested in the story “Global Pool of Money” that I linked to a few months ago. explaining in very easy to understand terms how we borked up our [...]