Freakonomics

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are taken over. Lehman Brothers goes under. Merrill Lynch merges with Bank of America. The stock market plummets. AIG is bailed out. And more. Everyday this week there is a new headline about institutions that I know, but do not really understand much about. Everyday, when you think things cannot get worse, they do.

On the one hand I am scared to learn more about the situation. Yet, I really need to find some time to learn about all of this: why it happened, what the consequences are, and what I will need to do.

I have never had an interest in economics, business, or financial related things. My high school economics class was a joke because our professor was retiring, I have put off Business Associations until my last semester of law school, and taking Tax Law was a big step for me. Yet pretty soon, I will be stepping outside the bubble of education and into the working world, where investments, banking, mortgages, and more become a reality. In theory I could just hire a financial advisor, but that does not look to be working out for many people nowadays.

Fortunately I will get a mini-lesson on the subprime mortgage crisis because one of that writers I am supervising on my journal is writing about the subprime mortgage crisis (I advised her to find a professor to make sure her substantive writing was correct). But if anyone else can explain everything in layman's terms, I'll send you some brownies or something.