A lot has happened in the last few weeks to reshape the American (and world) financial landscape. I’m quickly learning that what I knew about banking and liquidity I learned from It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m as naive as Zuzu’s petals.  The crisis we are in is not about mortgages anymore. The speculation in the real estate market over the last 10 years followed by the decline in home prices was just the match that ignited a firestorm in shadowy investment models holding trillions of dollars. Here are 3 programs EVERYONE needs to listen to to get an educated background in how we got here and where we go from here.

The first is the 60 Minutes piece from Sunday’s episode. The episode looks upsteam from the mortgage market to the problems seizing the paper markets.

The other programs we all need to listen to are from NPR’s This American Life. Another Frightening Show About the Economy (10/03/2008) explains the crisis in the paper market in a way that is easy to wrap your brain around. Giant Pool of Money  (05/09/2008) starts at the beginning when the depths of this crisis were only started to appear.  You’ll never look at mortgages and lenders in the same way after hearing how the industry was run over the last 10 years.

As professionals in the industry it’s important to understand this big mess because it will have lasting effects on our industry for the next decade. Then we’ll be due for the next speculative bubble to pop.   

We are in a historic event right now which will be debated and studied for years to come. Some day you’ll look back on this and say “I remember where I was when the market went down 700 points”.

Final point: Right now someone is working on the next big idea.