Daniel Yergin was recently interviewed on NPR's always informative
Planet Money podcast. Yergin—most famous for his 1992 Pulitzer-winning opus on 20th century petroleum development,
The Prize—has penned a
sequel, of sorts, examining the modern quest for sustainable energy amidst the looming threat of climate change. If
The Prize was an epic glorification of the quest for money, oil and power,
The Quest is a look at those who might have to clean up the whole mess. "The heroes are the engineers and scientists of the energy world — the geeks, in other words."
[more inside]
posted by hamandcheese
on Nov 15, 2011 -
11 comments
Betting Against the American Dream. In 2005, just as Wall Street started to get cold feet about the housing market, the
Magnetar hedge fund helped create a new wave of billion-dollar mortgage-backed securities, pushed bankers to include riskier sub-prime mortgages, and then shorted the securities, making millions when the bubble finally burst. Traders on both sides of the deals pocketed enormous fees even if their banks went under when the securities failed.
Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica,
This American Life, and NPR's
Planet Money track down some of the big winners in the housing/financial crisis. No time to read or listen? It seemed so much like a scheme from
The Producers, they even recorded
a show tune to explain it all. (
Previously,
2,
3)
posted by straight
on Apr 15, 2010 -
30 comments
