Subprime Meltdown Easily Explained - The Subprime Primer

The subprime loan mess has been reduced to a primer of 45 stick figure cartoons, and it's priceless. The slideshow progresses from the borrower at a mortgage broker saying "Gee, I'd like to buy a house but I haven't saved any money for a downpayment and I don't think I can afford the monthly payments. Can you help me?" to unprintable expletives. Along the way, there is a stunningly simple explanation of what went wrong in the subprime lending debacle. (These are adult cartoons, by the way, with some strong language.) Just click on each slide to advance to the next cartoon.

Well over a year ago we discussed the growing subprime problem, which will take time to solve. The meltdown is of historic proportions, and will doubtless be studied long in the future along with the South Sea Bubble of the 1700's and the Tulip Bulb Mania of the 1600's.

h/t reader JK, via email