Ryan Benjamin | Financially illiterate

Have you noticed the financial crisis developing right before our eyes - possibly this country's worst since the Great Depression? Most of us know it exists but don't understand it to the extent we should.

I randomly surveyed over 120 Penn students, and only 31 percent reported that they were "extremely confident" or "pretty confident" in their ability to understand the current financial dilemma.

Finance professor Richard Herring believes the lack of comprehension among students is "a problem, but I would guess that if we were to get honest responses, that's about what we would hear from Congress as well." Ouch.

What exactly is happening? I turned to one of those "extremely confident" students, Wharton and Engineering junior Edward Nie. "Since money was cheap these last few years, lenders made many loans to unqualified people, which [the lenders] just repackaged as complex assets and sold to investors," Nie said. "When housing prices fell and people defaulted on their loans, these assets became essentially worthless, and all the banks that held onto these assets took billions of dollars in losses. After taking such large losses, banks have stopped lending for fear of losing more money, and therefore we have the 'credit crunch.'"

That may give a brief synopsis - in English - but the crisis is clearly much more complex. Since high school and college have done little to boost my financial literacy, I turn to the media - newspapers, television and online sources - to seek enlightenment. I usually don't leave very satisfied.

Only 13 percent of student respondents said the media has explained the crisis well. I'm not sure where even these people are getting their news, because the media has done zilch to help me understand the mess we're in - or why it matters.

At Saturday's SPEC Connaissance fall speaker event, I asked Anderson Cooper if he thought the media was fulfilling its responsibility. "If you can find me someone who knows what's going on, let me know," he said to laughter.

Even Chris Matthews, my favorite TV news personality, is off the mark. On last Tuesday's Hardball, in reference to the upcoming vice-presidential debates, he said, "I'm asking what are we going to do about the dollar and its shrinkage? How do you stop the dollar from shrinking? A particular question, which I don't know the answer to." Chris should have almost as good an answer as Sarah Palin, if not better, but he doesn't even try. We trust these folks, but they don't deliver because their financial understanding is almost as bad as ours.

The media is one of the only real connections between the government and everyone else, unless you watch C-SPAN, in which case there's no middle man.

Paul Solman, economics correspondent for PBS' The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, does an excellent job of educating the audience. He connects with viewers by employing interactive tools to explain complex economic concepts, using dominoes, for example, to explain the subprime mortgage crisis.

The problem is that very few people watch PBS, instead choosing the mainstream media, where Herring says people enjoy "poignant stories about evictions and neighborhoods in decline." This prevents many from understanding the fundamental nature of the crisis.

How can we learn more? According to the survey results, nearly 70 percent of respondents said they rely on friends to explain the economic downturn. But not every American has a friend who's an Economics major or in Wharton.

The media must concern itself with more than just sensationalism and the bottom line by becoming educators during times like these. Now's also the perfect time to revise the curriculum to require that students graduate high school or college with basic proficiency in economics or finance.

Regardless of the media, the ultimate question is how will this crisis affect us - and when?

Some Penn students have lost job offers or a significant amount in stocks, while others are limiting spending. But most of us - 57 percent in fact - don't consider ourselves currently affected.

We will be soon, so go educate yourself.

Ryan Benjamin is a College senior from New Haven, Conn. His email is benjamin@dailypennsylvanian.com. A Connecticut Yankee appears on alternating Mondays.

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