If only someone could have seen this financial crisis coming, say, in 2003. If only there was an economist who predicted the housing bubble. If only there had been criticism of subprime lending years back. If only someone had discussed the wider implications of the housing bubble and the financial deregulation that spurred it on. Wasn’t there some wild-eyed radical to speak up and say financial mechanisms like derivatives hedges are putting us all at risk? I mean, the only experts the media can rely on are people who were totally surprised by the meltdown. They happen to be the same folks who missed the late-’90s stock-market bubble bursting, but since they uphold elite interests, they’re going to keep their jobs as primary news sources. I mean, really, who could have known?

If only someone could have written something like this years ago:

This situation is frightening for two reasons. First, as a short-run matter, if housing prices fall sharply in some of the areas where the effects of the bubble are largest… new home buyers (and those who recently refinanced their mortgages and took money out) could find they have negative equity in their homes. … When this happens, there is a huge incentive to just let the mortgage holder foreclose on the home. If this were to happen on a large scale, the survival of many banks and financial institutions would be at risk.

I mean, that person would probably be the most sought-after economist in the news today, right? He would be a household name, and major news outlets wouldn’t be turning to Alan Greenspan to explain why everything is falling apart.

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I’ve obviously been doing a pretty poor job of choosing topics you all want to spout off on this week, so today you get an open thread. I know the phones were jammed up during the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory segment, so there’s one idea. But anything goes below, as far as subject matter goes.

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The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 had a deep personal impact on most if not all Americans. My brother was living in Manhattan at the time, and the events obviously had a huge impact on him. I worked at the main trauma center (St. Vincent’s) on the 12th, but my experience was one of frustration since there were so few survivors to help. But spending a lot of time with the EMTs, firefighters and cops who responded in the first hours of the tragedy — all of them losing more than a few friends in the incident — changed my life forever. But seeing Ground Zero up close reinforced the repulsion I felt toward war. I knew we would soon be doing to civilians in other countries what had just been done to us, and it made me even sicker than I already was.

So many people had extraordinary or mundane experiences with 9/11 yet had profound reactions or underwent irreversible changes in perspective or awareness. We want to hear where PBMers were on 9/11, how it affected you, and how you think the so-called “war on terror” has gone since that fateful day.

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Listeners called and wrote in today to express a huge, often hilarious arsenal of ideas regarding just what journalist-turned-tool Bob Woodward is referring to when, in recent interviews about his latest book, he talks about a “true breakthrough” by the US military — some kind of “top secret… operational capabilities” that help “locate, target and kill” enemy leaders. Speculation ranged from Pete’s idea of tiny robots that sneak around and find you then somehow snuff you, to a crass idea suggested by suspiciously Tard-like caller “Drat”: Goat AIDS, which would strike Taliban fighters when they “sought comfort” on cold nights in the countryside.

So what’s your guess? Check out highlight’s from Woodward’s 60 Minutes appearance below…

(Read the article)

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So here’s the dirt, folks. What’s your take on the differences between these recent interviews?

Clips embedded after the jump…

(Read the article)

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At the top of today’s show, Aaron treated us to a dream he had in which planes fell from the sky into New York Harbor just before killer whales started jumping around and jetski-riding terrorists headed toward shore. Speaking of nightmares, it’s been a while since I took a good shot at Obama, but this just caught my eye…

More cartoons by Mr. Fish

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So Sen. Barrack Obama either just admitted he’s a secret Muslim (the worst Muslim ever, since he’s not observing Ramadan!), or he misspoke when he referred to “my Muslim faith” in an interview on ABC’s This Week.

Meanwhile, Gov. Sarah Palina misrepresented the relationship between Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and the American public at a rally in Colorado Springs. It’s not clear that she even knew what these institutions are or do, but all sorts of theories are popping up to explain what she meant to say, or why she’s actually correct if you twist truthiness just right, while others are simply insisting that a Vice Presidential candidate doesn’t need to understand the forces behind the US housing market as a couple callers insisted today.

Pete says Obama made a slip-up but Palin exposed a fundamental lack of understanding of one of the major economic issues of the moment (the biggest of the day).

Then again, Pete also referred to the war on Iraq as a “mistake” instead of a wildly immoral, patently illegal act of unjustified aggression. So maybe it’s all a matter of perspective.

So what’s the truth in either case? Obama a secret, unobservant Muslim? Palin needs to take a remedial economics course? I’m volunteering to tutor her! I TA’ed Macroeconomics 103 at The American University in 1994, so I’m clearly qualified!

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Okay, PBMers, let’s all gather around the TV and make fun of McCain together! Go to this website here and sign up for an account (takes about a minute) and then go into the Chatrooms area and look for the PetesBigMouth chatroom. That’s where we’ll be waiting. Except I won’t be because I lack the constitution to watch McCain speak. So thanks for watching it on my behalf!

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I don’t agree with my little brother that Palin’s family life is fair game or all that relevant, or that we should say she belongs at home with her kids. But I do agree that she is a religious zealot based on what she has actually said. Unlike Obama’s Rev. Wright, who was making political statements that lots of people disagreed with, this is the candidate herself spouting off with religious nutbaggery!

After the jump, some videos to illustrate the insanity of it all. And don’t think we’re not just finding the tip of this iceberg. If this stuff doesn’t sink McCain’s campaign, then paraphrasing one of today’s callers, we deserve whatever reality TV gong show our political system, and our collective ignorance, deliver unto us…

(Read the article)

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In addition to being a good friend of the Dominick family, Matt Updike is an extraordinary athlete. Matt will be on the show today during the 4 o’clock hour.

On behalf of the whole clan, we would be terribly honored if friends of the show would support Matt’s first-ever Paralympics handcycling bid in Beijing with a tax-deductible donation. If you can’t afford to help monetarily, because the shitty economy has gutted you or Hurricane Gustav just ripped your roof off, give Matt a shout out in the comments section below!

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