npr.org — Remember those complicated bonds full of home mortgages? The ones that almost brought down the economy? A team of reporters with NPR's Planet Money used $1,000 of their own cash to buy a tiny piece of one ? and plan to track it until it dies.
Mar 12, 2010 View in Crawl 4
kasha34Mar 12, 2010
Thank Bill Clinton, Andy Cuomo, ACORN, Barney Franks, Chris Dodd. Oh, and Obama helped as a young lawyer too.
ninjaturtles1Mar 13, 2010
Uh... what?
gleongelpiMar 13, 2010
This is nothing but fear mongery. It was toxic to the original investor, but it I paid 1,000, and I get a dvidend of 141 once a year, I made a great investment. Divide 36,000 by 2,700,000, and you paid practically nothing. If one sells a hand full of houses in that lot for 20 cents on the dollars, you made a lot of money.
nosecohnMar 13, 2010
*their... their... and theirWell, at least you're consistent.
m4xmcleodMar 13, 2010
What do you mean? I have $100 dollars
hillsfarMar 14, 2010
From the podcast:"I met this one guy, Richard. He's a Marine, this big guy, over six feet tall. And, when he came back from Iraq a few years ago, he bought one of these fancy new mortgages with an adjustable rate. Recently, his rate reset. It's gone up by more than two thousand dollars a month, and he's fallen behind on his payments."'It got to the point where... one point my son had seven thousand dollars in a CD and I had to break it. And... I mean that really hurt. 'Cos I was saving that money for his college. I mean, I put... put two thousand back, but... It's like you can't have a future. They put you in a situation where, after a while, you're.. you're gonna fail. So...'"I feel for Richard, the Marine. He deserves help. But, who is he blaming? Did he think about interest rates going up and going down before he decided to sign for an adjustable rate mortgage? I remember reading about how interest rates on home mortgages rose as high as 10 to 15% on homes back in the early 1980s. Who would accept an adjustable rate mortgage knowing that could happen again?!?
hillsfarMar 21, 2010
The CD was for his young son's. For college. It was probably funded before the mortgage and so considered untouchable.
solecizeMar 23, 2010
f**k Chana Joffe-Walt and her gamer-hate
kealperMar 31, 2010
My city "optionally puts fluoride in the water as a community service".....yet I live conveniently close to an area nicknamed "Chemical Valley".