Accessibility links
Planet Money's Toxic Asset This series tracks Planet Money's investment in a toxic asset.
Toxie, the toxic asset.
Special Series

Planet Money's Toxic Asset

Before Toxic Assets Were Toxic

The last bubble: A neighborhood laid out in in the 1970s in Charlotte County, Florida, for a subdivision that never got built. DigitalGlobe hide caption

toggle caption
DigitalGlobe

Planet Money

Before Toxic Assets Were Toxic

Back in the day, Planet Money's pet toxic asset seemed like a benign way to help more people buy houses.

Before Toxic Assets Were Toxic

Listen · 4:34
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/129916011/129916021" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Tiny Slice Of A $200 Million Mortgage Fraud

Dr. Fred Bloom unwittingly sold this house into what may have been a mortgage-fraud ring. Chana Joffe-Walt/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Chana Joffe-Walt/NPR

Planet Money

A Tiny Slice Of A $200 Million Mortgage Fraud

Planet Money's Toxic Asset includes a tiny slice of a major mortgage fraud.

A Tiny Slice Of A $200 Million Mortgage Fraud

Listen · 5:35
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/128720556/128726289" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Inside Our Toxic Asset: An 81-Year-Old Man With A Dog Named Muffin

Richard Koenig, 81, defaulted on a $300,000 loan. "I don't have horns," he said. Chana Joffe-Walt/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Chana Joffe-Walt/NPR

Planet Money

Inside Our Toxic Asset: An 81-Year-Old Man With A Dog Named Muffin

We bought a toxic asset full of mortgages gone bad. Then we went to Florida to find some of the people behind the mortgages.

Inside Our Toxic Asset: An 81-Year-Old Man With A Dog Named Muffin

Listen · 7:06
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/128700329/128712815" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Crisis In The Housing Market

Planet Money's Toxic Asset Apparently Is Toxic

The Planet Money team was supposed to get another payment on its mortgage-filled toxic asset. But things aren't looking so good. This month there was no payment. So far they, have received $449 but it cost $1,000 to buy the asset earlier this year.

Planet Money's Toxic Asset Apparently Is Toxic

Listen · 4:37
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/127028577/127028605" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Seeking A Smoking Gun In A Toxic Asset
NPR

Seeking A Smoking Gun In A Toxic Asset

A toxic asset like one purchased by NPR's Planet Money is the subject of a lawsuit. A New Jersey carpenters union invested $100,000 in a mortgage-backed bond now worth $5,000. It wants payback.

Seeking A Smoking Gun In A Toxic Asset

Listen · 6:04
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/126025456/126039917" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Toxic Assets Market Awaits Rebound

The collapse of the housing market has turned more than $1 trillion in mortgage-backed bonds into toxic assets. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Toxic Assets Market Awaits Rebound

During the peak of the housing market, the value of the mortgages that got stuffed into those complicated mortgage bonds known as toxic assets was more than $3 trillion. But now the market has stalled, in part because many sellers are waiting for the economy to improve.

Toxic Assets Market Awaits Rebound

Listen · 4:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/124852799/124883676" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
We Bought A Toxic Asset; You Can Watch It Die

A computer monitor confirms the purchase of a toxic asset. (Note: Some information is intentionally blurred out.) David Kestenbaum/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
David Kestenbaum/NPR

We Bought A Toxic Asset; You Can Watch It Die

Remember those complicated bonds full of home mortgages? The ones that almost brought down the economy? A team of reporters with NPR's Planet Money used $1,000 of their own cash to buy a tiny piece of one -- and plan to track it until it dies.

We Bought A Toxic Asset; You Can Watch It Die

Listen · 7:36
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/124491608/124604193" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org