The Money Meltdown

October 6, 2008 8:58 AM

The Money Meltdownis an excellent site clearly summarizing the banking crisis, with links to articles of varying complexity, including an dry (but readable) economics paper summarizing the lessons from 42 previous banking crises and a guide from the Brookings Institution on what the next President needs to do. And yes, they also reference the podcast just discussed.
posted by blahblahblah (12 comments total)

They appear to have overlooked the only Really Sound Advice I've read on the matter.
posted by TomStampy at 9:17 AM on October 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

They forgot the old saying: they bought things they didn't need with money they didn't have to impress people they didn't like...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 9:18 AM on October 6, 2008

TMM discussion on MeFi Projects
posted by substars at 9:22 AM on October 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

comment I posted earlier
In fact, the current economic woes look a lot like what my 96-year-old grandmother still calls "the real Great Depression." She pinched pennies in the 1930s, but she says that times were not nearly so bad as the depression her grandparents went through. That crash came in 1873 and lasted more than four years. It looks much more like our current crisis.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=477k3d8mh2wmtpc4b6h07p4hy9z83x18
posted by robbyrobs at 10:31 AM on October 6, 2008

I read somewhere that we have a new depression as soon as the folks that lived through the last one die off.
posted by Bitter soylent at 10:43 AM on October 6, 2008

Or there is the stick-figure powerpoint explanation
posted by Bitter soylent at 10:50 AM on October 6, 2008

From the stick figure presention...

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

The End

Not with a bang but a whimper.
posted by salishsea at 11:49 AM on October 6, 2008

Also, an interesting post from a sociologist's perspective on the role of self-interest in economic collapses.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:22 PM on October 6, 2008

If we could combine the economic meltdown threads with the Sarah Palin threads, we'd cut MeFi's front page in half!

This must somehow be her fault, right?
posted by rokusan at 1:03 PM on October 6, 2008

If we could combine the economic meltdown threads with the Sarah Palin threads

That idea is so Mavericky!
posted by qvantamon at 5:21 PM on October 6, 2008

Old Money

A young man asked an old rich man how he made his money.

The old guy fingered his worsted wool vest and said, "Well, son, it was 1932. The depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel."

"I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents."

"The next morning, I invested those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I'd accumulated a fortune of $1.37."

"Then my wife's father died and left us two million dollars."
posted by Bitter soylent at 7:20 AM on October 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Very nice post. Great links. Thanks. Just in time for the Dow to drop to 9657.
posted by RussHy at 12:03 PM on October 7, 2008