PHOTO : THOMAS HAWK
I stopped listening to every podcast of NPR's Planet Money several months ago when they started getting rambley.
I downloaded a few of their recent podcasts, and was really surprised by Alex Blumberg's interview with Goldman Sach's spokesperson Lucas van Praag.
Planet Money's style, I guess, is to be down to earth, jargon-free and off the cuff. They want to report economic news so that anybody can understand it. Sometimes they just sound flaky and disorganized. Alex Blumberg is a little clumsy, awkwardly mellow, but he does know what he wants to find out from Goldman Sachs, whatever way he can. The exchange ends up allowing for some illuminating comments from the spokesman, like this one
"I think that compensation is always a major hot topic. Understandably, in an environment where people are losing their jobs, have lost their jobs, losing their homes, have lost their homes. And not withstanding the fact that the statistics suggest the rate at which people are losing their jobs and losing their homes is slowing, it's still happening, and [it's] miserable. And entirely understandable that people would be angered by what they consider to be, as you described, a situation where people who were responsible, or thought to be responsible for, assisting in the creation of crisis are seen to be benefiting disproportionately. "
I appreciated Blumberg's questions about compensation in light of the Government's rescue of AIG and Goldman, and van Praag is fascinating to listen to, whether or not he's telling the whole truth.
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