Courtesy of Stephen Colbert, we get a little history lesson that reminds us how we fixed problems once upon a time in America. Get the full episode here.
Jon Stewart v. CNBC, or The Failure of the Financial Media
A pretty brilliant saga played out over the last week on The Daily Show. It started when Jon Stewart tweaked Rick Santelli and his widely-publicized rant against homeowner bailouts. Apparently Santelli’s network, CNBC, couldn’t take a little joke and fought back, which only provided The Daily Show with more comic fodder. (You can watch the follow-up segments here and here. Very funny stuff.) Then, it all culminated last night when Stewart brought Jim Cramer, a leading CNBC personality and investment advisor, on the show. Here, the jokes end and a long and deadly serious interview begins, and we all get to see how the financial media failed, if not betrayed, us during the rise and fall of the credit bubble. Sad that a comedian has to make the point. But I’ll take it.
As a quick side note, it shouldn’t be said that no one ever warned the American public about the programming being put out by CNBC and especially Jim Cramer. Last year, David Swensen, who manages Yale’s multibillion dollar endowment (which has fared quite well during this decline, at least relative to other large endowments) took aim at Jim Cramer in the NYTimes, noting: “There is nothing that Cramer says that can help people make intelligent decisions.” “He takes something that is very serious and turns it into a game. If you want to have fun, go to Disney World.”
This American Life: The Financial Crisis in 59 Minutes
Last week, we created a handy list of blogs & podcasts that regularly cover the financial crisis. And so it seemed worth flagging the latest episode of This American Life. It’s called “Bad Bank” (MP3 — iTunes — Feed). It just came out this weekend. And it takes a close and entertaining look at what happens when a bank goes bad/insolvent. The show gets into the real nitty gritty of the crisis and, once you’ve listened, you’ll better understand better the pros and cons of solutions being tried out by the government.
The episode follows two other insightful programs by This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money (May 2008), and Another Frightening Show about the Economy (November 2008). All three programs are now added to our list of financial crisis blogs and podcasts.
Blogs & Podcasts for the Financial Crisis
There’s no doubt about it. We’re living in interesting times, as the Chinese curse goes, and they won’t be going away any time soon. Most of us can’t afford to ignore what’s happening here. So, below, I have highlighted a number of blogs and podcasts that help make intelligent sense of this economic debacle. Here they go…
- Planet Money: NPR is doing a great job of covering the unwinding global economy. The Planet Money blog is a good read, and it includes an essential reading list. But the accompanying podcast is one that I follow regularly. It’s a must. And it’s generally entertaining. You can access it here: iTunes — Rss Feed — Web Site. (Note: the last episode is not the best example of what it’s usually about.)
- EconoTalk: EconTalk was voted “Best Podcast” in the 2008 Weblog Awards. Hosted by Russ Roberts (out of George Mason University), the show “features one-on-one discussions with an eclectic mix of authors, professors, Nobel Laureates, entrepreneurs, leaders of charities and businesses, and people on the street.” You can access the show via the following channels: iTunes — RSS Feed — Web Site.
- The Baseline Scenario: Dedicated to “explaining some of the key issues in the global economy and developing concrete policy proposals,” The Baseline Scenario is written, among others, by Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, who is now a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Although relatively young, the blog has received a fair amount of acclaim as the financial crisis has unfolded. You may want to particularly check out their collection of content called Financial Crisis for Beginners.
- Realtime Economic Issues Watch: Here, senior fellows of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (a think tank based in Washington) “discuss and debate their responses to global economic and financial developments as they occur each day and offer insights that others might overlook.” You will find some of the folks from the Peterson Institute also appearing on the podcasts and blogs mentioned elsewhere on this list. Find the RSS feed here.
- Paul Krugman: A Princeton University economist, a Nobel Prize Winner, a New York Times op-ed writer, Paul Krugman is blogging the global financial and economic crisis daily. It’s an opinion that you can’t afford to take lightly. You’ll also want to see his newly released book, The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.
- Economists’ Forum: Run by the Financial Times (UK), this blog brings together a large number of economists who offer a running commentary on the state of the fragile economy. The Wall Street Journal has its own real time blog here.
- Fallout: America’s Financial Crisis: Marketplace, the nightly radio program on public radio (iTunes — Feed), also hosts a blog that tracks the week’s top stories on America’s financial crisis.
- NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: The PBS nightly news program almost always includes an informative segment dedicated to the financial news of the day. The coverage, which typically includes interviews with experts, is excellent. You can download the podcast here: iTunes — Feed — Web Site
- The Becker-Posner Blog: While not updated as frequently as Krugman’s blog, The Becker-Posner blog is a great place to read the thoughts of two Nobel prize winning economists (Gary Decker and Richard Posner) discuss the current economic crisis. Thanks Bryce for the tip.
- This American Life: One of NPR’s beloved programs has offered some excellent coverage of the financial crisis. It started with a show called The Giant Pool of Money (May 2008), and it has since included a program called Another Frightening Show about the Economy (November 2008). Now there is a new one called Bad Bank, which explains what’s really happening in the trainwrecks that are banks. These programs were put together partly by members of the Planet Money podcast mentioned above.
Are we missing something good? Please let us know in the comments below…
The American Future
Through his books and documentaries, Simon Schama, a British born historian, has covered a lot of fertile ground. The French Revolution, the slave trade, the power of art, Rembrandt, early modern Dutch culture, the history of Britain — Schama has covered it all. And now he has pulled a Tocqueville on us. He spent the better part of a year traveling across America, sizing it up, and producing a lengthy TV documentary (now available on DVD) and a related book (not available in the US yet) called The American Future: A History. His analysis of America, of its past and its future, takes into account several major themes: religion, immigration, land and resources, and war. In this recent conversation with Bill Moyers, Schama talks at length about America and where it finds itself today. The first 15 minutes focus on Obama and the challenges he faces. The remaining part gets into themes discussed in The American Future. You can access it here: iTunes — Feed — Web Site.
P.S. I am really sorry about the frustrating downtime this morning. My hosting service — Dreamhost — had some “issues.” Hopefully this was an exception.
The Unrepentant Terrorist? A Conversation with Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and favorite whipping boy of the failed McCain campaign, gives a primer on the summer of ’68, discusses his favorite tattoo, and explains how the Chicago Police Department now loves him. The interview was conducted by a colleague of mine, Scott Hutchins, and you have to like the ironic way it begins:
…our interview [started] with a bomb scare. We sat down on the couch in a busy hotel lobby and a worried security guard approached. “Is that your bag?” she asked, pointing to a backpack and coat that were definitely not ours. “Nope,” we said. “Oh boy,” she said. She asked a few other people. The owner was not there. She radioed in. I considered the irony of being blown up while interviewing Bill Ayers. I figured it would at least get me a wikipedia entry.
Get the full interview over at The Rumpus.
Welcome to the New Age of Upheaval
Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has written extensively about the rise and fall of great empires and financial systems. Writing for Foreign Policy, Ferguson now warns that the spiraling economic crisis may soon pose serious threats to international peace and American security. As we saw during the late 1930s, economic crisis often sets the stage for full-blown political and possibly military crisis, and we’re already seeing the risk of upheaval in nine countries, including Somalia, Russia, and Mexico. Ferguson closes by saying: “Economic volatility, plus ethnic disintegration, plus an empire in decline: That combination is about the most lethal in geopolitics. We now have all three. The age of upheaval starts now.”
via The Daily Dish
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