As someone who works in finance and technology, I have had a front row view of what is happening now with the financial and credit markets. Just a couple years ago, I was helping a large European bank develop reports for the very financial vehicles that are helping to devastate economies around the world now. In preparation for developing the reports, I did a ton of research to learn exactly how these vehicles worked, and to be honest, I had a very difficult time figuring out how the money flowed through these vehicles, and it seems like a lot of people that needed to know how they worked really had no clue. I don’t mean to scare anyone, but we’re in for a very long and rough ride, and I mean the whole world here. This crisis is something that historians will write about much like the way that they write about the Great Depression.
If you want to understand more about what is happening, please take an hour of your time, and listen to the October 3rd episode of This American Life. You can also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes if you prefer. It will help you understand how we got into this mess.