marcusharwell.net » financiapocalypse

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman Pwns CNBC Jerkwads

Marcus — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:48:42 +0000

Congressman Sherman (D-CA) was on CNBC to talk about the plan to tax AIG bonuses. He destroyed the weak attempts to paint him (and others in Congress) as anti-capitalist, and demonstrated, as did Jon Stewart with Jim Cramer, why CNBC is out of line to even attempt to defend its lack of reporting integrity.

Credit Crisis & Banking System Collapse Explained

Marcus — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:54:01 +0000

Jonathan Jarvis, who studies Media Design at Art Center in Pasadena, created a video to break down the credit crisis for the layman (via Chexy).

Also, last week’s This American Life was another fantastic show on the banking system and why things seem to be still melting down. Most basically, banks need to hang onto most of the capital they’ve received from the government, not freely lend all over the place, because it’s the only way to avoid falling deeper into the hole. We are, indeed screwed, and there’s no way to make the guys who fostered the mess pay without nationalizing banks for a time, because the taxpayers would end up having to fix the collapse of institutions just as we are being asked to save them. Go listen after you see the video.

Getting My Head Around the Financiapocalypse

Marcus — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:00:19 +0000

There were three things in succession that helped me understand most of what I now know about the economic meltdown that’s squeezing the bejeezus out of the markets and of us. Knowledge is usually a good thing, but it can be tricky when so few people know the root causes and effects of a given situation, and faulty reasoning by people with their own axes to grind are spewing half truths and nonsense. Enter Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson, who did an amazing piece on the mortgage crisis in May on This American Life called

1. The Giant Pool of Money

They did it again in October when the floor dropped out from beneath the markets. That one was titled

2. Another Frightening Show About the Economy

Just today, I read Michael Lewis’s mind-blowing cover story from Portfolio’s December issue,

3. The End

It does make me want to grab some of the people involved and shake them very hard by their Hermès ties, but it digs deeper into the depths of our recent, sorry financial history. I am very, very glad that I am not looking for a job in finance right now.