Some time has passed since taking my macro/micro economics courses, and quite frankly I was never a numbers guy… So trying to understand how an investment bank that was founded in 1850 ends up broke – intrigues and troubles me, at the same time. So far, our local stock market has proven its strength, dropping only 3.8% this Sunday, following some hugh drops in European, US and far-East markets.
One of the blogs I follow is PresentationZen, by Garr Reynolds. Garr posted this very ‘web 0.0’ video of Paddy Hirsch, a senior editor at Marketplace, who explains (on a whiteboard, with Mr. line-like-men) in 6min what CDOs are all about, and why they are the main reason for the current crisis.
There are two more videos from Paddy, highly recommended:
Untangling credit default swaps
Untangling credit default swaps from Marketplace on Vimeo.
The credit crisis as Antarctic Expedition
The credit crisis as Antarctic expedition from Marketplace on Vimeo.
Read Isiah Berlin on the Paradox, Contradiction between Freedom and Equality.
Wikipedia will do.
Thanks !