The Housing Bubble, Mortgage Crisis, and Bear Sterns: A Primer

This is an entry I originally posted in March... it deserves repeating today for obvious reasons. Courtesy of the PBS News Hours the weekend after Bear Sterns went down, a succinct 11-minute report explaining how problems in the housing market spread into the wider economy.

Warning: May shake your faith in the religion of deregulation and free-market chaos.

YOUTUBE: Bear Stearns and the Domino Effect

On a related note, a Brooklyn resident wrote this letter printed in the NY Daily News the day I originally posted this: "Bear Stearns selling for $2 a share and ruining many people financially is a prime example of why we should not invest Social Security in private retirement accounts. Aren't we glad we didn't swallow that snake oil?" Yes. Yes we are.

[PS- These two Tom Tomorrow cartoons (one, two) also sum it pretty well.]