Planet Money and the Big Short

My July endorsements are both economics/crisis related. Thanks to a tip from Andy Bernard, I started listening to Planet Money, a podcast from NPR. I download it from iTunes. The reporters are excellent. It manages to be very entertaining while not sacrificing substance. I learn something from almost every episode. In the episode I'm listening to now, they track down homes in Sarasota, FL that were part of a "toxic asset" they bought during the crisis. Three of nine houses they found were investment homes. Another was a second home. I'd been expecting it to be poor, unsophisticated people who had lost their jobs and hadn't been able to make interest payments when their low "teaser" rates expired. I'm sure those victims are part of the larger story but it's interesting to hear about the other side.

I've also been listening to an audiobook of The Big Short by Michael Lewis. The characters are fascinating and you learn a lot too. Though I have to admit that synthetic collateralized debt obligations still confuse me despite Lewis' lucid explanations.