Christopher Blizzard

I’m going to point out two good stories about the banks today. I thought they were both very informative. But mostly I thought they were worth posting because they were incredibly different in their style and approach.

The first is The Big Takeover in Rolling Stone. What I love about this is the populist fire that it creates in everyone who reads it, including yours truly. Certainly in the US – and in other countries as well – people are angry. Quietly, independently, and often without outlet, but certainly angry. This is the best writing I’ve seen that brings that anger to the surface. Maybe because of the content – there’s a lot to be angry about – but also because it’s Rolling Stone so the otherwise boring financial descriptions can be lit on fire with actual curse words. Read it.

The second is Episode #375 of This American Life: Bad Bank. It’s about as far style-wise from the Rolling Stone article as you can find – pleasant, informative, but far more scary. Learn about the balance sheets of banks, mark to market accounting and what the Treasury and current and previous administration has been doing (or not doing) to help deal with the problem. As part of Act II they actually drill down and talk with some people who are buying bad mortgages from the banks and trying to build a business around giving foreclosed homeowners the chance to have smaller loans. So they cover things at both the macro level and personal level – very interesting and certainly worth the listen.