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Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They'll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could've done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. You can learn more about the daily ins and outs and join the discussion on the Planet Money blog.
Prologue.Host Ira Glass goes to Union Square, a 15-minute subway ride from Wall
Street, where it doesn't look like we're on the edge of
an economic abyss. (3 minutes)
Act One. The Day the Market Died.
Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson recount the 36-hour period,
two weeks ago, when the credit markets froze. Plus, what
it’s like now for businesses to get short-term loans, and
how the hardship is spreading to every sector of the economy. (16 minutes)
Act Two. Out of the Hedges and Into the Woods.
One more confusing financial product that’s bringing
down the global economy. And one of way to think about this product is this:
If bad mortgages got the financial system sick, this next thing you’re about
to hear about, helped
spread the sickness into an epidemic. These are "credit
default swaps." Alex explains. (19 minutes)
Act Three. Swap Cops.
Ira talks with Michael Greenberger, a former commodities regulator, who
tells the story of when it was decided not
to regulate credit default swaps. And how that decision was emblematic of
the way we didn’t regulate a lot of the toxic financial products we’re
hearing about now. (8 minutes)
Song: "Bankrupt on Selling," Modest Mouse
Act Four. What's Next?
Ira and Adam answer the question: Was the $700 billion
bailout bill signed into law today a good idea or a bad
one? (10 minutes)