Some easy listening on the subprime lending crisis

This is one of the few times when I wish I were still a freshman in Econ 101. You can be sure that econ professors the nation over are using the mortgage crisis as a teaching tool and helping their students understand this complicated and interesting (and tragic) situation.

Here are a couple of pieces I have read/heard recently that do a good job at breaking it down for the rest of us.

This American Life, 5/9/08: "The Giant Pool of Money."

New York Times Magazine, 4/27/08: "Triple-A Failure."

Washington City Paper, 10/12/07: "Subprime and Punishment."