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8 | Th e M Rep o RT from the source History and What It Teaches Read THIs: Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises By: Timothy Geithner Geithner headed the Federal Reserve when the financial crisis began, and his book doesn't shy away from the rush of panic and dread that financial "first responders" felt when the all-too real possibility of a second Great Depression loomed above the world. In speeches at the time, Geithner's words often faltered, and the portrait he painted of the situation was unclear, but that is to be expected of anyone preoccupied with matters of historic importance. His description of events in this book is more clear and show with unusual candidness the events that averted the disaster behind the scenes. WaTcH THIs: "The Last Days of Lehman Brothers" on YouTube This BBC-produced film details the titular final days before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which was at the time the fourth-largest investment bank in the nation. Troublesome repurchase agreements were used to hide unstable assets from the company's portfolios during reporting periods, and it all came crashing down when all of Lehman Brothers' competitors decided they wouldn't purchase the toxic assets of the firm. Though this movie closes on the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the aftershocks that followed were just as important to the entirety of the financial world. TWeeT THIs: @calculatedrisk Bill McBride is a blogger and retired businessman who maintains his own website in addition to his Twitter handle. He tracks the release of many major reports and indices in advance, and his posts tackle issues and new statistics from individual metros as well as the entire nation. Each one usually contains a link to an information- loaded article or graph that puts the current market behaviors into an easy-to-digest historical perspective that is greatly needed when so many complex factors play into the subjects he tackles. sHaRe THIs: "A post-war history of U.S. economic growth" By: Nick Bunker Bunker works with the Washington Center for Equitable Growth as a research associate, and his short essay on how the economy is behaving in relation to the past is intriguing. By tracing the components of per-capita gross domestic product back through time to the beginning of a post- World War II economy, it is easy to see how the rising national GDP is beholden mostly to increasing personal expenditures. Combine this fact with increasing income inequality, and on the horizon one can almost see a stagnant GDP for the nation. Bunker urges different methods of stimulating economic growth. This month's selection of media brings light to bear on things from the past that have all too much relevance to the future. From a former Fed chair to a retired small-business leader, these voices know their history.