If, like me, you'd like to understand what's going on with the current financial unpleasantness but have no idea where to begin, here's a very good place to start: the diavlog between Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute and Robert Litan of Kaufmann Foundation (and the Brookings Institution). They talk about what went wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and outline some proposed approaches to dealing with the problems. This lasts for about twenty-seven minutes. Next, they move on to discuss free trade and competitive education. The whole thing is about 70 minutes long. You could invest a half hour or an hour in worse ways, to say the least.
Lindsey is a regular on BloggingHeads.tv. He's a leading "liberaltarian." That is, he's not a wild-eyed free market zealot. I've always found him quite thoughtful, even if I don't agree with every last one of his views. Litan I don't know, but he comes off as a liberal Democrat, though not a stereotypical hater of free markets, with a highly impressive resume and an ability to explain things clearly. I say this to emphasize that their diavlog is not a cable TV-style debate shoutfest. It's a highly informative conversation, if you're starting from where I am, with just enough difference in perspective to avoid the echo chamber problem.
If the thought of sitting in front of your computer for an hour does not appeal, note that the diavlog doesn't have to be streamed. You can download the video (WMV) or audio (MP3). Just follow the link above and look a little below the video window. You'll see the download links there.
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