Ten Days That Shook the Financial World

If you’re won­der­ing why so many domi­nos (Fan­nie & Fred­die, Lehman Broth­ers, Mer­rill Lynch, AIG) have fall­en so swift­ly this past week, give a lis­ten to today’s episode of Fresh Air (iTunes — RSS Feed — Stream Here). It fea­tures Michael Green­berg­er who gives a very lucid expla­na­tion of how/why our unreg­u­lat­ed shad­ow finan­cial sys­tem final­ly col­lapsed, and why the gov­ern­ment is sprint­ing to social­ize the loss. Good stuff here.

Sep­a­rate­ly, in anoth­er won­der­ful case of Amer­i­ca reward­ing utter fail­ure, you can read all about how Mer­rill CEO John Thain and his two senior lieu­tenants will get $200 mil­lion for “less than a year’s work which cul­mi­nat­ed … in the bank sur­ren­der­ing its 94-year-old inde­pen­dence.” Pathet­ic.