The lead blogger here at Green Urbanism is really slacking. Bruce, you need to pick it up. Speaking of Bruce Wayne, should I change my pen name to Batman? Set up a little split personality dynamic for the blog?
Anyway, I just want to post a few really valuable reference materials on the current crisis in the housing markets, which is among the areas I'm most qualified to contribute to "the whole gamut" covered in this blog.
First of all, I highly recommend the Washington Post's coverage of the crisis, from all sorts of angles. They've already published a great overview of how the mortgage backed securities (MBS) market got out of balance ("Explaining the Crisis"). This week they have a similar three part series on how AIG got so intertwined in the market for credit and risk-hedging investments that it eventually needed to be bailed out. Both can be found here: Washington Post
Second, if you're feeling really ambitious, check out this pdf created by an investment firm called T2. It's a lot of information, and if you just want the conclusion, it's this: the subprime housing crisis is just just the tip of the iceberg, and the next year or two will have plenty more foreclosures and continuing declines in housing prices. Buckle your seatbelts and keep your arms inside the car.
