The human mind cannot grasp the causes of phenomena in the aggregate. But the need to find these causes is inherent in man’s soul. And the human intellect, without investigating the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions of phenomena, any one of which taken separately may seem to be the cause, snatches at the first, the most intelligible approximation to a cause, and says: "This is the cause!"
- Leo Tolstoy
What caused our nation[the United States]'s current economic storm? How can you make sense of subprime mortgages and the federal government's $700 billion rescue plan? And what policy measures can the United States take to protect itself from future crises?
The summer of 2008 marked the start of a financial panic that has affected our country with a rocky stock market, an increase in unemployment rates, a decrease in consumer spending, and a shrinking GDP rate. It is only by looking beyond the dire media reports and getting to the root causes that you can better grasp how we got in this situation, and how we can get ourselves out of it.
Modern Economic Issues: Financial Crises is delivered by expert economist and award-winning Professor Robert Whaples. Dr. Whaples is Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics at Wake Forest University. Professor Whaples is also the director of EH.net, the Economic History Services' website that provides invaluable resources for economic scholars. Professor Whaples won the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History from the Economic History Association.
In this specially commissioned lecture, go beyond the overwhelming media accounts and explore specific origins and impacts on our current economic situation.
- The Teaching Company, [35MB mp3] Modern Economic Issues: Financial Crises
