Our major financial shows, in chronological order:
 The Giant Pool of Money. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? (Transcript)
Another Frightening Show About the Economy. Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson are back. They'll explain what has happened in the news recently, including what regulators could've done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. (Transcript)
Bad Bank. The collapse of the banking system explained, in just 59 minutes. When we talk about an insolvent bank, what does it actually mean, and why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to rich bankers who screwed up their own businesses? (Transcript)
Scenes From a Recession. In this episode we highlight the unusual circumstances our economic drought has left us in, and the newly hatched plans being made to survive it: including a partially-renovated condo building in Chicago, whose developers have abandoned it—though they didn’t bother to tell the 19 unit owners who still live there, paying their mortgages.
The Watchmen. Since Congress hasn't held 1930's-style hearings into the causes of the financial crisis, we stage one of our own. Where were the watchmen? (Transcript)
And a few of our shows centered around other themes, with financial stories in them:
Enforcers. Alex Blumberg reports on a peculiar Wall Street practice with a dirty-sounding name—naked short selling—and how one of Wall Street's main regulators doesn't seem all that interested in regulating anything. (Act Two—Now You SEC Me, Now You Don't.)
A Better Mousetrap 2008. Looked at one way, the current flailing economy is a victim of invention—Wall Street invention. (Act Two—Financial Mousetrap.)
Scenes From a Mall. We spend several days in a mall in suburban Tennessee, not only to find out what people are buying in this grim financial year, but to document daily life in the mall during the run-up to Christmas. (Acts One and Two)
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 The daily, free podcast and blog covering the financial crisis from This American Life's Alex Blumberg, and NPR's Adam Davidson. |
Studs Terkel covers The Great Depression.
Alex and Adam recommend:
"The Giant Pool of Money" Wins Peabody
"The first-ever collaboration of 'This American Life' and NPR's news division, this report was impressive for the arresting clarity of its explanation of the financial crisis we're in, and even more so for its having aired so early—May 2008."
Senator Max Baucus and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner praise Bad Bank:
"The Giant Pool of Money" Wins duPont
"Ahead of many journalists, reporters Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson gave an outstanding and occasionally irreverent explanation about the current financial crisis in April 2008, months before the global economy began to unravel. Through terrific storytelling and economic insight, the reporters demystify the subprime mortgage meltdown using personal stories to explain terms such as derivatives, tranches, short selling and credit swaps."
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