Thought you might like to read an interview with our very own Whiteboard editor Paddy Hirsch. He’s featured at the Business Insider this week.
PADDY: I can only take partial credit for the Whiteboard. It was born as a presentation tool to explain to Marketplace staff the origins of the crisis and the need to save Bear Stearns. I got the idea from a famous engraving of the disaster that befell the first party that climbed the Matterhorn. A man slipped and fell, and because he was tied to several others in his party, he dragged them to their deaths as well. It seemed like a fitting analogy for what people thought might happen to the banks if the big ones were allowed to fail.
And from that fitting analogy was born a Internet video star with a magic marker. Using simple drawings and language, Paddy has explained everything from interest rates to the repo market to collateralized debt obligations in a way you’ve surely never heard before:
PADDY: I try behave a bit like a a 9-year-old, in terms of breaking it down. The best part is that a-ha moment where you know you’ve explained it in a way people can understand.
Are you an artist at all?
PH: ::laughs:: No I suck at art! I actually went out and bought some books by a guy called Ed Emberley that teach you how to draw and I’ve learned a lot from that. I’m getting better!
Below is Paddy’s favorite Whiteboard of all time. View the Whiteboard archive here.
The credit crisis as Antarctic expedition from Marketplace on Vimeo.
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