U.S. Economic Crisis of 2008-2009  Tags: econo economic_crisis economy business  

If you didn't have the time or the technology available to watch Dr. Waller's excellent presentation from the video on this page, it has been summarized here using non-technical terms.

John H. Boyd and Ravi Jagannathan are economic professors at Northwestern University's Kellog School of Management. They explain the situtation in a blog posting that is best suited for business majors.

Barry Eichengreen, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkelye, offers another take on the crisis.

The Brookings Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank located in Washington, D.C. They goal is to conduct non-partisan research and make recommendations for implementing or changing government policies. One section of their website is devoted to the U.S. economy.

National Public Radio has a new blog devoted to the topic at their Planet Money website.

Calculated Risk is an anonymous blog written by "a retired senior executive." A good source of links to current financial news.

This American Life is a National Public Radio program of true-life reports and essays. In the episode titled "The Giant Pool of Money," producer Alex Blumberg and NPR business and economics reporter Adam Davidson discuss how the rise in sub-prime mortgages kicked off the current financial crisis.

  Listen to The Giant Pool of Money.
  (May 5th, 2008. Approx. 60 minutes)

In September of 2008, the global credit market "froze" because banks refused to lend money. This second This American Life show by Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson picks up where "The Giant Pool of Money" left off.

  Listen to Another Frightening Show About the Economy.
   (October 3rd, 2008. Approx. 60 minutes)

The higher fees and better rate of return for investors in "sub-prime mortgages" (mortgages made to people who would not qualify for a standard 15 or 30-year mortgage) created a huge demand for these investments. This pressure caused financial institutions to change their regulations so that they could write as many of these mortgages as possible. When the risky mortgages started to fail, banks and investment firms were so over-leveraged (having too much debt and not enough cash) that they began to go bankrupt, starting with Bear Stearns in July of 2007. With so many firms involved, banks stopped lending money altogether to avoid making loans that could not be repaid. This led to the "credit freeze" of September 2008 and the request for U.S. government assistance.

There are, of course, many more details involved than the short paragraph above. Use the links on this page to learn more.

This is a presentation created by BusinessPundit.com and CollegeCrunch.org that explains the mortgage crisis using stick figures. It is both hilarious and completely factual. Click the image to start (Warning: may be objectionable to some due to strong language).

From May 7th, 2008. 45 slides.

Dr. Christopher Waller is a professor of economics at Notre Dame. After discovering that most people understood only certain pieces about the financial crisis, he put together a presentation to discuss the situation as a whole using terminology that non-economists can understand. This video is from Notre Dame's ongoing "Saturday Scholar" lecture series.

From October 4th, 2008. Approx. 60 minutes.

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Contact the Galvin Business Librarian:

Christine McClure
(312) 567-3374
cmcclur1@iit.edu

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Marketplace is the financial news arm of National Public Radio. They have a special audio feed of reports about the financial crisis.

  Select a Marketplace audio report below. 
  (varying dates and times)

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