I look like a cornered criminal, but this episode of Free Will gives me good exposure to explain how we got where we are today. Find out why Will Wilkinson considers Arnold Kling “The most sober crackhead I’ve ever met.”

That dialog is slightly over an hour. If you want to spend another hour and a half with me, listen to this podcast. The audio quality is much better, and I look better (there is no video), but the Wilkinson dialog is more current in terms of substance.

I strongly recommend the dialog with Wilkinson. I’ve actually listened to it a couple times now, and I think it really captures a lot of my thinking. The podcast goes into more depth in some areas, so if you find yourself overwhelmed by everything that gets thrown at you in the video dialog, I would recommend listening to the podcast.

One thing that I make clear in the podcast that I failed to do in the video is that the trading strategy involved in protecting a credit default swap could involve short-selling. That raises all sorts of interesting issues, including the possibility that the ban on short sales effectively destroyed the CDS market.