(Untitled)

[smccloud]

[cross-posted for now with the new site]

More Infographic Terror

Everybody and his brother is linking to this great animation by Jonathan Jarvis about the credit crisis:

Comments

[rumrug]

It's nicely done animation, but I was a little surprised by how he characterized and cartooned the "sub-prime" family as "irresponsible", while not mentioning the huge irresponsibility of financial deregulation explicitly (credit default swaps just get a passing definition), and not mentioning predatory lending at all. My eyebrow raised further when I scrolled down to see what's on the T-shirt that he's selling (which a cynic might conclude is the ultimate point of this website).

[smccloud]

That's a great point, Neil. I glossed over the political subtext there. Hm. May amend the post slightly to acknowledge this, and maybe point a more nuanced piece to balance it out.

[bunny42]

He also failed to include government intervention (CRA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.) as a cause for banks to lend money to unqualified borrowers. The banks were forced to make sub-prime loans by government mandate, as well as to compete with the likes of Fannie Mae. His piece lays all the responsibility on large financial institutions, which is not exactly fair.

I commend his ability to make a truly complex situation easier to understand, but I think there was room to include Uncle Sam in the mix.

[smccloud]

This is a great microcosm of the debate. rumrug and bunny42, you're pretty much congress in miniature, only much, much nicer and more reasonable. ^__^

[sempaimiles]

I always knew that the best way for this ugly, complex and confusing thing to be explained to me would happen to be found somewhere on the internet. Thanks for posting this Scott, great piece! Although, like everyone else, I was wondering where the "government stepping" in part was.