PBS FRONTLINE: Money, Power, and Wall Street (4 Part Global Financial Crisis)

[Zippyjuan]

Paulson was pretty much shown to not know what he was doing.

[rpwi]

Watched both parts. Was disappointed.

First part was about 'how' derivatives and collateralized mortgage debt created the crisis. This is false. No mention was made to how the Federal Reserve encourages, props up and CONSTANTLY bails out the banks. No mention was made of how fractional banking works. No mention of how fractional banking always encourages over-investments and bubbles and we will ALWAYS have a bubble as long as we have fractional banking. Outlaw derivatives and collateralized debt and we still have a crash. It would have been in another financial sector or at a slightly different time...but mal-investment ALWAYS creates crashes and fractional banking ALWAYS creates mal-investment because it generates artificial demands for loans (no other accepted method to introduce M1 into the economy). No mention was made of how the Euro enabled fractional banking to go nuts in Europe and how European banks with their fake money were able to prop our our fake mortgage loans.

The second part made me so angry... Apologists and insider after insider came on screen to explain to explain the situation from their view. There was no legit representation from the anti-bailout side. The free market is the villain (as are the politicians who support it) and the pro-bailout team the heros. Especially 'heroic' apparently is Obama who wows financial insiders in a insider meeting with Bush, bank cronies and McCain by out 'bailouting', pro-bailout McCain using secret knowledge from his 'insider' connection at UBS. The choices presented by the documentary were simple. Unacceptable mass bankruptcy or bailouts. No mention of alternative options. No mention of SPECIFICALLY how a mass bailout would occur. Sometimes a forest needs fire to regenerate and melt the wax protecting their seeds. The financial sector needed just such a forest fire. Yes...this would have represented change...but we would have been on the path of recovery unlike now where we are still bailing the stupid system out. Bailing out FDIC would have been cheaper than unprecedented amount of debt each household had to take on to finance this bailout (not to mention the inflation which will get ugly when the money multiplier returns).

There is some usefull information in the documentaries...more so in how insiders and cronies meet and make big decisions...not so much conceptionally on how the banking system works nor what was/is needed to fix it.

[Brian4Liberty]

Frontline is like any other media, take it with a huge grain of salt. It's a good source for info not usually in the media.

[Roy L]

I highly recommend you watch. Part 1 was on the 24th...

It's nothing but a whitewash of some of the greediest crooks on the planet. Watch "Inside Job" and get some kind of clue.

[Travlyr]

Watched both parts. Was disappointed.

First part was about 'how' derivatives and collateralized mortgage debt created the crisis. This is false. No mention was made to how the Federal Reserve encourages, props up and CONSTANTLY bails out the banks. No mention was made of how fractional banking works. No mention of how fractional banking always encourages over-investments and bubbles and we will ALWAYS have a bubble as long as we have fractional banking. Outlaw derivatives and collateralized debt and we still have a crash. It would have been in another financial sector or at a slightly different time...but mal-investment ALWAYS creates crashes and fractional banking ALWAYS creates mal-investment because it generates artificial demands for loans (no other accepted method to introduce M1 into the economy). No mention was made of how the Euro enabled fractional banking to go nuts in Europe and how European banks with their fake money were able to prop our our fake mortgage loans.

The second part made me so angry... Apologists and insider after insider came on screen to explain to explain the situation from their view. There was no legit representation from the anti-bailout side. The free market is the villain (as are the politicians who support it) and the pro-bailout team the heros. Especially 'heroic' apparently is Obama who wows financial insiders in a insider meeting with Bush, bank cronies and McCain by out 'bailouting', pro-bailout McCain using secret knowledge from his 'insider' connection at UBS. The choices presented by the documentary were simple. Unacceptable mass bankruptcy or bailouts. No mention of alternative options. No mention of SPECIFICALLY how a mass bailout would occur. Sometimes a forest needs fire to regenerate and melt the wax protecting their seeds. The financial sector needed just such a forest fire. Yes...this would have represented change...but we would have been on the path of recovery unlike now where we are still bailing the stupid system out. Bailing out FDIC would have been cheaper than unprecedented amount of debt each household had to take on to finance this bailout (not to mention the inflation which will get ugly when the money multiplier returns).

There is some usefull information in the documentaries...more so in how insiders and cronies meet and make big decisions...not so much conceptionally on how the banking system works nor what was/is needed to fix it.

Nice report. I couldn't make it through even the first one. When I see counterfeiters being interviewed as experts I wonder why they are not in jail. The real crooks are on TV. It is rather disgusting.

[Aurave]

It's nothing but a whitewash of some of the greediest crooks on the planet. Watch "Inside Job" and get some kind of clue.

It's still important to watch these things because, well other people will.

[HOLLYWOOD]

It's still important to watch these things because, well other people will.

Yeah, it's truly amazing how they present this only from one perspective. Everybody on Wall St knew it was going to explode... the Vanity Fair article was a nice piece, proving the firms were well aware and dumping exposure for years, of course the FED was totally complicit.

Face Book Like 148,582 people like this. Be the first of your friends. https://twitter.com/intent/user?orig...on&variant=2.0

it's being thrown around on Twitter they created an account just for FRONTLINE PBS...you can get a temperature of what the people think/ https://twitter.com/#!/frontlinepbs

@frontlinepbs

[HOLLYWOOD]

It's nothing but a whitewash of some of the greediest crooks on the planet. Watch "Inside Job" and get some kind of clue.

It's still important to watch these things because, well other people will.

Appears's like FRONTLINE is having a LIVE debate @ 1pm EST on "Hour 3 feat". We can challenge their perspective, refute their presentations, and expose the truth

FRONTLINE ‏ @frontlinepbs

Join a live chat on "Money, Power & Wall St." Hour 3 feat. @m_wiser @RyanLizza http://ow.ly/aDSfO TODAY 1 pm ET

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...-closed-doors/

[rpwi]

Not a very open chat...they completely ignored my question