I’ve subscribed to The Baseline Scenario for over a year now. I find it to be a very balanced and informative source of information about how we got into the financial straits that we are in. The authors (Simon Johnson and James Kwak), along with a number of well-read readers who leave comments, also provide answers to how to get out of the mess, answers that frequently don’t agree with what is being proffered by the establishment. But it seems that the establishment is starting to realize that Johnson and Kwak are not so ignorant after all – they are slowly moving in the direction being shown them by The Baseline Scenario. Johnson and Kwak have a new book, 13 Bankers, and, while I have not read it, I think it should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to understand how we got to where we are. From NPR, here is a short interview of Simon Johnson. There are a lot of sites out there in Internet-land claiming to have the explanation for what happened, but I think Johnson and Kwak’s site is the best. The posts there can be hard to understand for the layman, but there is enough there for naifs that anyone who visits will come away with a better understanding of where we are and where we need to be.