Looked at one way, the current flailing economy is a victim of invention—Wall Street invention. Investors and banks and brokers created all sorts of stuff the world would've been better off without. In the aftermath, Democrats have blamed Republicans for the mess, and, naturally, Republicans have blamed Democrats. Ira talks to Charles Duhigg, whose been covering the subprime mortgage crisis for The New York Times, to find out who we should really be mad at. (10 minutes)
More in Economics
Act Four: Let’s Do the Numbers
One of the things we were excited to investigate when we went to Alabama was to answer the question at the heart of the immigration debate: what does it cost taxpayers when we let in millions of immigrants, documented and undocumented? In Albertville, how much was it? We asked economist Kim Rueben and her colleague Erin Huffer to run the numbers.
Act Three: Aw, Do We NAFTA?
Ira explains that when Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton all seemed to be against free trade agreements, he got genuinely confused.
Act Eight
The last day of the month continues and the truism is accurate: some people get great deals because it’s the end of the month and they have to hit their goal.
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