“Loans for liars” or, Feed the Beast

Last week’s episode of This American Life, The Giant Pool of Money, is a fantastic look at the mortgage crisis.

Hear the guy – and they are all guys – who owes all of his take-home pay to the mortgage company.

Meet the recent college grad who once took in 100k per month selling repackaged loans and now gets a helping hand from his old man.

Understand how good common sense got flattened by the free market free-for-all.

Testosterone, greed, fear and tragedy, these tales have them all.

The show also namechecks the blog Calculated Risk which is definitely worth a visit.

Today’s post leads to a story on the emotional toll of the mortgage crisis and this video, the other side of the vanished coin: