Everyone cites the cause of this great financial plight as the devious loan practices of the prior years. However, no one has looked into the ultimate reason these loans were able to be made. These loans were begun when interest rates plummeted due to the Federal Reserve reducing the Fed rate to a paltry 1%.
In the summer of 2003, just before his renomination as the head of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan had two meetings with President Bush. No one knows exactly what was discussed.
It had been rumored that he would be replaced but, lo and behold, he kept his job, unlike the three finance ministers that Bush had replaced earlier.
For some reason, thereafter, the Federal reserve Board began this untiring reduction of interest rates to an unbelievable level of 1% and kept it there for some time.
At the same time, Bush continued his inflation of the money supply by reducing taxes, paying for the war in Iraq, and many, many other unnecessary spending programs.
Finally, in early 2004, just in time for the presidential election, the money began to flow through the economy, and Bush was re-elected.
Certainly had the meetings between these two kings been recorded, nothing directly improper would be found. However, the unspoken agreement between them might speak volumes.
Now you see the rest of the story!

Sent by Chuck Pitard | 8:32 PM ET | 09-15-2008

I feel much better now that Adam has told Jenny to chill. Because, I, like Jenny, was a bit freaked by all of this. Granted, some of mine could come from working in newsmedia and generally just consuming way too much of the stuff.

Also - great job with the podcast. It's nice to have economic info broken down so that people like me can understand it.

Sent by Kerry Crawford | 10:39 PM ET | 09-15-2008

I really like the idea for the podcasts. One of the few were I actually feel a bit more informed about the world once I've listened to it.

Btw, this episode never showed up in iTunes or your RSS feed. Hope you get that sorted out soon since iTunes s how I mainly keep up on new podcasts

Sent by Larry Madill | 10:48 PM ET | 09-15-2008

for real this would be a good one for the rss feed. My question is this... how far are we from a James Howard Kunstler "long emergency" or "world made by hand" type collapse? and I'll take my question off the air. thank you

Sent by RR Anderson | 3:07 AM ET | 09-16-2008

What do you think about trying to preserve the value of at least some of one's wealth by buying precious metals? And, paper, or gold/silver bouillon---the real thing? Or both?

Sent by Miriam Davey | 3:04 PM ET | 09-16-2008