Today on Planet Money:
-- That's a ransom note, said Simon Johnson of Baseline Scenario, after reading an analyst's call for the U.S. to pay top dollar for toxic assets — or else. Johnson and Adam Davidson call up the person who wrote it, Joseph LaVorgna of Deutsche Bank.
-- Adam put himself through a viewing of The International, a supposed thriller. For real edge-of-your-seat cinema, he says, listen to this tale from John Moscow.
Bonus: Blog comment of the week, after the jump:
(Confidential to self: Why do we have real names and handles, anyway?)
Comment of the Week goes to Karen Ivy (hedera), on "What Electronic Bank Run?":
The remark which caught my eye in Mr. Salmon's extremely interesting post, was this: speaking of the outflows which DID happen in the money market, "Substantially all of the outflows came from institutional accounts: retail investors never panicked."
Retail investors - that's thee and me, folks. We have enough sense not to panic when the market goes nuts temporarily; and back then, nobody realized how long or how bad this would be. But the people who panicked are the people WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MANAGING OUR MONEY FOR US, in our pension funds and 401Ks. Those people headed for the exits like lemmings going over the cliff.
Why are we paying them all those fees if that's the best they can do??
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