One of the wonderful programs I've found on National Public Radio is "This American Life." It's been running now for quite a few years, but every weekend there's a new one-hour show, each time devoted to a single theme. The host, Ira Glass, introduces the theme of the week in his laconic voice which has become his trademark. For anyone fascinated by the infinite variety life unfolds, this show is a must.
The other night I lay in bed listening to one of his programs devoted to "Classifieds." He and his staff poured through the classified ads in two papers one day, then went out to meet the people in charge of classifieds at one of the papers and, more importantly, the people who placed the ads in the newspaper. Were they young or were they old ? Were they hunting for something lost (a stolen dog) or were they financially desperate and trying to sell their belongings to stay afloat ?
Another program, organized around the theme of "Fall Guy," included four stories. One concerned a child who had a dog named Noodles and whose grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's moved in with him and his family. One night the boy had to pee and couldn't make it to the bathroom in time. The grandmother suffered from an inability to control her bowels and wore a diaper, The boy peed on a rug, and the rest of the family attributed this to Grandma's having had "an accident." The boy started peeing all over the house. Eventually his parents blamed the dog and took the boy's dog to the pound, where he was "put down." The boy continued peeing, and finally the grandmother was sent to an "institution." He never told his parents that he'd been the one responsible .
Most of the shows are devoted to anecdotal episodes like these. But now and then an entire show will be devoted to investigating something and explaining it.
A recent program entitled "The Watchers" closely examined very closely the causes of our recent financial collapse. We've been told that mortgages, some good, many bad, were bundled and sold, and that when the bad ones collapsed there were so many of them that they caused the failure of the whole system. In the conventional press, that seems to be as far as explanations go.
"The Watchers" digs deeper. Wasn't someone, some regulatory agency, supposed to be supervising all these activities and transactions ? Yes, there was an agency, one you have probably never heard of. And that agency simply didn't do its job.
Congress, using a law signed by Clinton, hampered the agency from doing what it was supposed to do. What was responsible for AIG's fall? AIG was fragmented into so many different pieces in so many different locations worldwide and within so many different states that the pieces fell under dozens of different regulatory agencies. There were so many that no one could keep track of all the pieces and their activities.
Three companies, including Standard and Poor, rated the bundled investments (mortgages). Many people within those companies knew that the packages were poor investments. But because these rating companies were paid by the very companies whose offerings they rated, and since a huge percentage of their business came from the companies offering the bundled mortgages (we're talking 50 %), they had a strong incentive NOT to tell the truth about the huge risk the bundled mortgages exposed investors to. So they didn't.
As "The Watchers" explains, there is a lot of blame to spread around, and the public isn't being told this.
The other night I lay in bed listening to one of his programs devoted to "Classifieds." He and his staff poured through the classified ads in two papers one day, then went out to meet the people in charge of classifieds at one of the papers and, more importantly, the people who placed the ads in the newspaper. Were they young or were they old ? Were they hunting for something lost (a stolen dog) or were they financially desperate and trying to sell their belongings to stay afloat ?
Another program, organized around the theme of "Fall Guy," included four stories. One concerned a child who had a dog named Noodles and whose grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's moved in with him and his family. One night the boy had to pee and couldn't make it to the bathroom in time. The grandmother suffered from an inability to control her bowels and wore a diaper, The boy peed on a rug, and the rest of the family attributed this to Grandma's having had "an accident." The boy started peeing all over the house. Eventually his parents blamed the dog and took the boy's dog to the pound, where he was "put down." The boy continued peeing, and finally the grandmother was sent to an "institution." He never told his parents that he'd been the one responsible .
Most of the shows are devoted to anecdotal episodes like these. But now and then an entire show will be devoted to investigating something and explaining it.
A recent program entitled "The Watchers" closely examined very closely the causes of our recent financial collapse. We've been told that mortgages, some good, many bad, were bundled and sold, and that when the bad ones collapsed there were so many of them that they caused the failure of the whole system. In the conventional press, that seems to be as far as explanations go.
"The Watchers" digs deeper. Wasn't someone, some regulatory agency, supposed to be supervising all these activities and transactions ? Yes, there was an agency, one you have probably never heard of. And that agency simply didn't do its job.
Congress, using a law signed by Clinton, hampered the agency from doing what it was supposed to do. What was responsible for AIG's fall? AIG was fragmented into so many different pieces in so many different locations worldwide and within so many different states that the pieces fell under dozens of different regulatory agencies. There were so many that no one could keep track of all the pieces and their activities.
Three companies, including Standard and Poor, rated the bundled investments (mortgages). Many people within those companies knew that the packages were poor investments. But because these rating companies were paid by the very companies whose offerings they rated, and since a huge percentage of their business came from the companies offering the bundled mortgages (we're talking 50 %), they had a strong incentive NOT to tell the truth about the huge risk the bundled mortgages exposed investors to. So they didn't.
As "The Watchers" explains, there is a lot of blame to spread around, and the public isn't being told this.
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