House of Cards
I had an opportunity to watch CNBC's documentary House of Cards hosted by David Faber on the origins of the financial crisis last evening. While I don't watch a lot of television, some news, the weather, certain sports and the occasional HGTV/Food Network fare, I don't watch CNBC as often as I used to but David Faber always seemed to be a much tougher interviewer than in this show.
Having said that, House of Cards gives you a good idea of how this economic mess got its start in a relatively easy to understand way. I missed the original presentation last Thursday but count on being able to catch it in reruns.
As for the culprits, there were many but pay special attention to how the credit ratings agencies including S&P, Moody's and Fitch allowed the financial engineering and sale of mortgage backed securities by Wall Street to really bring down the house of cards.
Surprise, even Alan Greenspan was clueless. 