7 Resources to Help You Understand the Financial Crisis

Posted by Maneesh Sethi :: January 8, 2009 @ 6:35 am

With banks failing, currencies crashing, and the economy wavering, everyone wants someone to fix the problem. Unfortunately, very few people really understand what is going on. Why is there a crisis, where did it come from, and how could it have been averted? Very few people know the answers to these questions.

To help you make sense of what’s happening, we've compiled the following list of resources that offer good explanations for the crisis. After reading them, you should be better able to understand our current economic situation than before.

1) The Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis

This guide offers a flowchart that shows the causes and effects of each part of the crisis. Also, the chart is pretty!

2) Understanding the financial crisis for non-finance majors

Mohamed Nanabhay gives a list of links that helped him understand the reasons for the financial crisis. Some of his links are excellent, including:

3) The Giant Pool of Money

The Giant Pool of Money is a radio show produced by NPR and This American Life. During the hour-long radio show, you will learn all about the origins of the crisis, such as why the housing market affects Wall Street, and why banks made half-million dollar loans to people without any income.

4) Can’t Grasp the Credit Crisis? Join the Club

The New York Times manages to both educate you and insult your intelligence with this article. The writer shows how rare any sort of understanding of the crisis is and gives a short explanation of what happened.

5) Understanding the Financial Crisis

Written by PhD Stephen Rose, this academic article offers an in-depth explanation of the causes and results of the current economic situation. It also explains how the failure of the markets was accompanied by the altruistic desire to help first-time homebuyers.

6) Obstinate Observations - Understanding the Financial Crisis

This three-part series delves deep by identifying the roots of the crisis as well as potential methods of solving it. There is a lot of valuable information in the three parts of this article.

7) Understanding The Financial Crisis--For Kids and Grownups

This family-oriented video helps explain the roots and causes of the economic crisis. It doesn't go too deep into its explanation (it's only 4 minutes long) but it's definitely interesting to watch.

We hope that these resources will give you a deeper understanding of the factors behind the current situation and various possible solutions to the crisis.

Have you found any other helpful resources you’d like to share?