I’ve been trying to do some reading to help me understand the current financial crisis a little better. I thought I would share some links I’ve collected.
1. This is a decent nickel tour of the basics, from Jim Manzi at The Corner. The policy outlook is conservative, but if you only have three minutes, it’ll do.
2. Here’s a Q-and-A with some U. of Chicago economists at the Freaknomics blog.
3. Here’s a better round-up of links than this one, from Prof. Hoffman at the Co-Op.
4. NPR has started a new blog and podcast, Planet Money, that looks promising (the podcast especially, for neophytes).
5. Finally for now, an amazing episode of This American Life, “The Giant Pool of Money,” that explains much of the background in a very informative and entertaining way. It provides a great primer on what subprime mortgages are, how they work, and how they got us into this mess. Very much worth an hour of your time.
Feel free to add more basic/introductory links in the comments. Maybe we’ll move on to advanced topics later.