[URPE] Responses to Meeropol query on economic mess

Mon Aug 10 08:10:08 MDT 2009

Mike Meeropol wrote:

I am looking for a short piece that would be accessible to Principles 
level students that explains the mess the economy is in today.  (Focus 
on US, not the world.)  CHALLENGE and D & S usually have good pieces and 
I always enjoy reading MR [thought they might be a bit more difficult 
for my students] but I wonder if anyone has found a really outstanding 
(pedagogically) piece that might give students information while 
stirring up some thinking as well.

Here are the responses so far:

************

 From Alan Nasser:

Global Issues just had this on their site. It's very clear and 
comprehensive, for an intro:

http://www.globalissues.org/article/768/global-financial-crisis

Also, for more advanced students there are 2 good pieces in New Left Review:

Peter Gowan, Crisis In The Heartland  sorry, no date I think this can be 
printed out for free from NR's site.
Robib Blackburn, Finance and the Fourth Dimension, May-June 2006

************

 From Barbara Hopkins:

  I've been collecting internet stuff on "the mess we're in"  
http://www.wright.edu/~barbara.hopkins/Financial_crisis.htm 
<http://www.wright.edu/%7Ebarbara.hopkins/Financial_crisis.htm>  (I'm 
still updating a bunch of stuff that has appeared in my e-mail since 
April, but should be done soon.)  You are looking for something with 
only one * behind it.  I recommend Rick Wolf's video 
http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=139&template=PDGCommTemplates/HTN/Item_Preview.html 
<http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=139&template=PDGCommTemplates/HTN/Item_Preview.html> 
.  I've had more than one student say in class, "Well, I heard this 
video by this prof. from UMass who says ...."  And they seem to 
understand his point.

************

 From Jack Hammond:

Unaccustomed as I am to telling my students to watch television or 
listen to the radio, I am nevertheless planning to assign the following 
this fall:

Inside/ / the Meltdown, PBS Frontline (broadcast last February)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/view/

three things by the NPR Planet Money team (They do short segments on the 
daily news occasionally but the following are all one hour documentaries)

The Giant Pool of Money
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/extras/radio/355_transcript.pdf

Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson.  2008.  Another Frightening Show
About the Economy.  This American Life Program #365, National Public
Radio, October 1.

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

This American Life Episode Transcript
Program #375 2/23/2009
Bad Bank
www.thisamericanlife.org/extras/radio/375_transcript.pdf

<http://www.thisamericanlife.org/extras/radio/375_transcript.pdf>The PBS 
show is about the banking crisis from the failure of Bear Stearns to the 
bailout of AIG.  The three NPR shows are, first, about the subprime 
crisis, from the huge amounts of wealth looking for profitable outlets 
to the actual procedures for giving and securitizing mortgages; and bank 
failures and bank regulation.  The NPR stories are somewhat jokey but 
really quite detailed but palatable explanations of fairly complex 
financial shenanigans.

All these come with transcript and audio or video on line.

Even more jokey but too true to be funny are Jon Steward on Jim Cramer 
of CNBC's egregious boostering of companies that were on the brink of 
failure

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-9-2009/in-cramer-we-trust 
(and several subsequent shows that rehash the issue

and Bird and Fortune (British, er, economic analysts) on how markets 
really work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwRFoxgEcHc

those of you who want to explain it to students in principles of 
economics, pity me, with the even greater challenge of explaining it to 
sociology students (and making them understand why they should be 
interested. I look forwad to seeing other people's suggesions (in the 
next several days, I hope)

************

 From Kathy and Ernie Brandon:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

************

 From Kathy McAffee:

Mostly I have to do my own own explainin', but I've used Robert Wade's 
The Financial Crisis: Burst Bubble, Frayed Model from 
http://www.opendemocracy.net). It was published in 2007, which helps 
students see that the meltdown was predicted.

I've also used Walden Bello's pieces, such as Wall Street Meltdown 
Primer, published September 26, 2008 by http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5560 
(Foreign Policy in Focus). I give other of Walden's pieces, such as my 
favorite: "Capitalism in an Apocalyptic Mood", to my upper-division 
students.

The focus of these may be more international than what you're looking 
for. I've yet to see a good, short, student-friendly piece that ties 
together the effects of the crisis on working people in the US but with 
a big-picture framework. They exist, so I hope anybody who knows of one 
or writes one will let the entire list know

************

 From Sandy Darity:

Jamie (James Kenneth) Galbraith's website has a link to his columns, 
etc., that
include 3 oor 4 brief pieces that provide a good flavor of the fundamental
causes of the current crisis.

************

 From Tony Zaragoza:

I thought this piece in Rolling Stone was interesting and might give 
much to talk about (including that Goldman Sachs is as much a symptom or 
symbol of the problem as a cause):

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine

Tony Zaragoza | Political Economy | The Evergreen State College
http://academic.evergreen.edu/z/zaragozt/resources.htm

************

 From Ruth Indeck:

This isn't one outstanding piece, but you could look at the Crisis page 
on the URPE website -- it lists lots of web pages that are following the 
crisis.
http://www.urpe.org/res/crisis.html

Also, the URPE Blog has a few articles:
http://urpe.wordpress.com/
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