The guys at Planet Money are frakking brilliant, and I say this because they make it possible for a complete financial moron like me to understand the nuances and complexities of the global financial crisis.
This morning they had an especially interesting segment on NPR’s Morning Edition. While the text in the linked article is a pretty decent transcription of the audio, you need to listen to the entire audio segment.
The piece focuses on, “A single piece of paper [that] may just be one of the most surprising and illuminating documents of the whole banking crisis.” What did the document say?
“Ultimately, the taxpayer will be on the hook one way or another, either through greatly diminished job prospects and/or significantly higher taxes down the line.”
“In other words,” say Davidson and Blumberg, “the paper says, if the government tries to save taxpayers money, many people will lose their jobs and the whole economy will suffer.
MIT’s Simon Johnson referred to the document as a, “robbery note.” Question is, how are they going to collect a ransome when no one has any money?
Lots here worth listening to.