I am the money manger in our household, we have some stock, have a 401K, yadda, yadda, but I personally don't quite understand everything that is going on with the current financial crisis, so I decided to find some answers online.By far, the most popular and acclaimed explanation of what has happened to our economy seems to be the story, "Giant Pool of Money", aired on NPR's This American Life. I just finished listening to this online and things do make more sense to me.
There's another great link here: 5 Easy Pieces.
Basically, banks and lenders gave people money without having to verify salary/income because they were convinced the housing market would continue to grow and their money would always be safe. Stupid move.
That picture is powerful, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI get what happened...I'm just not not happy about it!
ReplyDeleteI love NPR so will check this out!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the big part of the blame goes to the borrowers/consumers who took the bait and borrowed more than they should have known they could afford and neglected to read the fine print. Banks should shoulder some of the blame, they screwed a lot of people and were greedy. But these borrowers/consumers are now getting bailed out for making bad decision while the rest of us who pay our bills and don't borrow up to our eyeballs are paying the price right along with them.
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