The economy: What happened

The BBC recently broadcast a three-part documentary on the financial collapse. You must see this presentation.

Here's part 1.
Here's part 2.
Here's part 3.

Sorry; I can't embed the videos into this blog. My advice: If you are using Firefox, acquire the VideoDownloader plug-in and use it to download all three parts to your system, then watch at your leisure. I'm sure there's a similar plug-in for IE.

The third part is the most enlightening. The key points:

1. The crisis was real. Some bloggers have opined that the bankers exaggerated the severity of the problem in order to abscond with TARP funds.

2. Deregulation caused the crisis. You knew that already, of course -- but here in America, we still have a surprising number of people arguing that the root cause of the problem was too much regulation. Libertarianism is a mental disease, and it may be incurable.

3. America's near-religious abhorrence for anything reeking of Socialism -- not to mention our blinkered ignorance of what has worked and what has not worked in Europe -- was the reason we did not take the obvious courses of action: Bailing out homeowners (Hillary's "new HOLC" idea) and nationalizing the banks.

4. Britain played a major role in forcing the hand of the U.S. I was unaware of this aspect of the story until I had seen part three of this documentary.

Again, I urge you watch -- and not to judge until you have watched.