The arrival of a new This American Life Podcast is the only reason why I look forward to the end of the weekend. I won't go to great lengths in this post to describe just how insightful I think it is but I will share with you the topic of this week's episode: banking.
Sounds great, huh?
Actually, my lack of understanding about America's banking system is something that has been troubling me ever since news reports began flowing in about the world's economic problems. The only financial knowledge I have is some mathematics that's used to attempt to describe the behavior of the stock market. That doesn't really do much for me when I read articles about "declining bank capital" and "toxic assets". Only recently have I personally felt the effects of this economic situation with difficulties springing up at a place where I used to work, (I won't mention names) with some friends, and even concerning my recent acceptance into graduate school.
Therefore, I'm quite appreciative of this new episode of This American Life where Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson of NPR discuss, in very easy to understand terms, how the American baking system operates, what exactly is the crisis that they are facing, and how that crisis affects the average Joe Citizen such as myself. I agree with Ira Glass that it can become confusing when news networks, internet blogs, and even the executive branch of the United States government --- whose job is to explain to the common person what's going on the the country --- use terms such as "declining bank capital" and "toxic assets".
I invite you to check it out. Even if you understand the situation completely it's a very entertaining exploration. They even make balance sheets sound interesting!
03 March 2009
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