Mistakes were made

It kind of makes the mind wobble sometimes sorting out who is responsible for the meltdown last year. I don't think it gets discussed enough that we have an economic system set up that almost guarantees corporations and fund managers will throw money into risky investments like mortgage-backed securities, because they've got investors breathing down their neck expecting them to turn out profits quarter after quarter after quarter.

Over the past few months, I and another writer at our student paper have been investigating how much money Trent University has lost out of its endowment and pension funds throughout the recession. And it occurred to me as I was writing this piece that it's kind of ridiculous to be surprised that insurance firms like AIG and big investment banks made the kind of mistakes they did trying to pump out profits. 

See, during the interviews I did, I asked our Vice-President, Administration Don O'Leary, what kind of pressure Trent's Investment and Audit Committee puts on the university's fund managers to make socially, environmentally, and financially responsible decisions. His answer was, essentially, that they don't. He said they trust the fund managers to make good decisions on their behalf. And moreover, he said the university's voting power as a shareholder just wasn't enough in any one company to make a difference. Meaning, to be cynical for a second, that the university either doesn't care or doesn't want to take responsibility for this kind of thing.

If universities, who have millions of dollars invested in these corporations, aren't willing to hold them accountable or put them under scrutiny at all for stupid decisions they make, what's the incentive for them to even bother?

If you're interested, have a look at the article. Sunneva and I are going to be working on a more in-depth version in the next little while.

Coming up

Hey all,

Kate and I have a really great show in the works for our next episode, Where Does Money Come From?, but in the meantime I wanted to acknowledge the technical issues with episode #2. We were both sick, sure, but there are still some editing problems we should have caught. We're learning this thing as we go along, and the kind of show we want to do requires some editing and musical wizardry we're just beginning to pick up. But bear with us. We think the next one's going to be a knockout, and we hope you'll think so, too.

What do you think of the show so far? What would you like to see in future episodes? Got something you'd like to chew us up about? Email us at moneyundressed@gmail.com.

Episode #2: What's the situation in Canada?

We take a look at the Canadian economy in the midst of the global recession. We ask some questions about Canadian banks and how well credit is flowing, and discover some surprising things...

Download it here, check it out on iTunes, or use the player below to listen in. We're working out a way to do this at Trent Radio, but this programming season is just ending over there and we're in the middle of classes and exams so it's going to take a little while. Please bear with us.

Oh, and if you haven't subscribed on iTunes yet, please do! You'll automatically get every new episode downloaded to your computer. Now isn't that convenient?

You're gonna want to subscribe to this

Kate and I are having entirely too much fun putting the next episode together. She promises me she'll be posting on here soon too so you don't get the (entirely false) impression that this is a one-human being show.

In the meantime, we're on iTunes now! So go ahead an subscribe, so you can get the Money Undressed podcast automatically sent to you. Go on, try it.

PS One of the saddest and most strangely entertaining blogs I've seen in a long time: The charmingly voyeuristic Brokers With Hands On Their Faces.

Retooling the schedule

Hey there dutiful readers and listeners, we've had some great feedback already and we really appreciate it. Keep sending us your comments and your ideas for future shows - we'd love to hear what you think.

We also wanted to let you know we've decided to move to a biweekly schedule. With the interviews we want to get and the length of time it takes to put together a really good sounding show, unfortunately biweekly looks like the shortest time frame we'll be able to make it on. Good news is, though, that this'll give us a little more time to make sure we're passing our courses and everything. Which I'm sure everybody can get behind.

Episode #1: What is the credit crunch?

Here it is! After hours of sweat, blood and tears, and one late night furiously editing at Trent Radio, let us introduce... Money Undressed - Episode 1!

Listen to it below, by tuning in Tuesday afternoon at 2.30 on Trent Radio, 92.7 FM in Peterborough, or by downloading it for free riiiiight here.

The Credit Crisis, in shiny graphics

Kate and I are hard at work on our first episode, here on the blog tomorrow and after that on iTunes to subscribe to once they list it (it takes a few days for new shows). We'll be trying to help explain what the credit crisis is all about, and talking to someone who's had a rough time figuring out the hard way what happens when banks stop lending all of a sudden.

In the meantime, here's a great video I found explaining a big part of the crisis and how it's connected to bad mortgages. There's a lot of really interesting stuff in this video, and it helps you understand how so many banks and investors can be suddenly find themselves on the verge of collapse when people stop paying back the bad loans they gave. A big thanks to Joey deVilla for linking to it.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The podcast to come

Hi there, my name is Chris, I'm one of the co-hosts of this new radio show and podcast we're calling Money Undressed. I want to let you know a little bit about it before our first episode goes up on Monday.

Kate (our other host) and I are big fans of two radio shows that have got us fascinated with this financial crisis going on around us, essentially. This American Life and Planet Money have done some amazing programs over the last year on what the mortgage crisis was all about, what the problems with credit have been, and a whole raft of other really fascinating and kind of disquieting things about the way our economy works. The two of us talk about this stuff all the time, but since both of these shows are based out of the US, there's lots about our situation here in Canada we're wondering about that they don't talk about. A while back we wrote in to Planet Money asking for some help, but then Kate had a great idea. She said, screw it, let's make our own show.

So every week now, we'd like you to join us as we try to figure out what this crisis looks like, what it's all about, who it's affecting, and why it's happening. We're finding we're learning a lot about some very fundamental things about banks, money, debt and economies that we'd simply never heard about. And we'd like to bring it to you guys in a way that's easy to understand, because one of our goals is to help other people become a lot more comfortable with this stuff.

That being said, the strength of these shows is often the strong feedback and comments from listeners. We're really interested to hear about your questions, topics you want us to cover, people you'd like us to interview... please, drop us a line. Our email address is moneyundressed@gmail.com.

You'll be able catch us on Trent Radio in Peterborough, Ontario soon (we're still working out a time slot), here on the blog and very shortly, on iTunes, where you can subscribe to the podcast for free. It's really easy. Thanks for reading, and we hope you'll listen in on Monday.

Chris