Bubble (Updated) 0

This week, This American Life, in conjunction with NPR News, explored the mortgage crises.

It was a fascinating show, including interviews with mortgage brokers, bankers, salespersons, homeowners, and credit counselors, some of whom were rich beyond their dreams before they became broke beyond their means.

From the website:

A special program about the housing crisis. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

You can go to the website to learn more–listening to this story of greed, of willful blindness, and of the belief that if it is making money it must be right faith in the invisible hand of the market is well worth your time.

(I am sorry, but I could not find an easy way to link to the show itself. There is a “full show” icon on the webpage, but it be that the show won’t be available for streaming until later in the week. But this was one of the best hours of radio I’ve heard in weeks, because it is real people talking about what they really did and how they, as customers, mortgage company employees and brokers, and bundlers, let themselves be sucked into the what Duncan calls the big shitpile.)

Addendum:

The show is now available from the website. Click the download link.