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Sunday, August 7, 2011

An Urban Teacher's Education: On Data, Part Three: Comparing Wall Street With Public Education

An Urban Teacher's Education: On Data, Part Three: Comparing Wall Street With Public Education

On Data, Part Three: Comparing Wall Street With Public Education

In the summer and fall of 2008, it became clear that global financial markets were collapsing. While the disaster caught many off guard (including Alan Greenspan), there had been a small number of individuals who had long predicted such a crisis for exactly the reasons that it occurred.

In retrospect, it seems that only three qualities would have been required to foresee the financial meltdown:

1) a rudimentary grasp of basic economic principles
2) a desire to understand the 2000's housing boom rather than merely profit off it
3) an understanding of the debts that underlay subprime mortgage bonds and collateralized debt obligations

It is safe to say that nearly everyone either investigating or investing in the housing boom had the first quality. It