[1]
One of the biggest podcast downloads on iTunes is This American Life [2] by Chicago Public Radio hosted by Ira Glass. It’s an hour long program that is diverse and interesting. The May 9th broadcast was particularly interesting to me called: The Giant Pool of Money [3].
It is a simple narrative on a complex subject and how the last five years evolved from a housing boom to housing crisis.
Think:
- $70 Trillion Dollars
- boiler rooms
- keeping up with the competition
- thirst for high returns
- NINA loans
- subprime investors
- from tending bar to buying mortgage pools
- Wall Street
- 2% default rates actually 50% default rates
- Very smart people using the wrong data to manage risk.
I listened to it twice just because it is rare to hear a complex topic that is presented so clearly.
Intelligence beat common sense to a pulp.