3155+Audio+from+This+American+Life+on+Financial+Crisis


 * Pol Sci 3155 Business & Public Policy, Fall 2008 (Dr. Howard)**


 * Audio files on financial crisis and regulation of financial markets: October 15 and 17**

ALL students are to listen to the following two hour-long programs. The first is about the collapse of financial markets last week; the second is an earlier show on the mortgage backed securities.

We will discuss them on Friday, October 17. We will NOT meet on Wednesday October 15.

__This American Life episode 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy__ http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

__This American Life episode 355: The Giant Pool of Money__ http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355 A transcript is here: http://www.thislife.org/extras/radio/355_transcript.pdf

When listening to the first (more recent) show, please make note of:

1. Why did the commercial paper market freeze? 2. What are credit default swaps? 3. How does leverage enable both huge gains and potentially huge losses 4. What is the key regulatory failure here? 5. How regulation might have helped prevent market problems in credit-default swap markets, if at all? 6. What happened to the snow?
 * Episode 365:**