financial crisis explained - at least partially

[eisely 13]

The article linked below is fairly long for online material, but it is a very lucid explanation of how the financial crisis developed. It was also reproduced in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

 

There is much much more that could be written and that will be written, but this is a good place to start.

 

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-madness-of-crowds-13180

[Beavah 205]

Yah, sorry eisely, dat's a pretty skewed and incomplete description, eh? It leaves off all da shenanigans with tranched CDO's and derivatives, makes no mention of the reductions in reserve requirements in Europe, the dismantling of Glass-Steagall, the role of the Federal Reserve with prior bailouts and excessively low interest rates, the impact of da U.S. debt and on and on.

 

Reads like just another partisan spin tract focusin' on only part of da story. Yah, there's an extent to which one can argue that federal policies encouraging home ownership via debt (includin' the deduction for home mortgage interest) create market distortions, eh? It's a part of da story, but it ain't even close to a more scientific or objective review.

 

Here's some others for folks:

 

http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/09/18/credit-default-swaps/

http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/09/23/credit-default-swaps-2/

http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/09/24/financial-meltdown/

 

And on AIG in particular:

http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/09/24/credit-default-swaps-3/

 

B