Money, Power and Wall Street, Part 1

Apr 24, 2012 on PBS at 9:00 PM

Summary

FRONTLINE takes you inside the rapid rise of credit default swaps, including the voices of those who created them. With the real estate market booming, bankers successfully tweaked the credit default swap to bundle up and sell home mortgage loans to ... (more)eager investors. But despite the money flowing into banks’ coffers, credit default swaps also loaded the financial system with lethal risk. And when the housing bubble burst, the credit default swaps — originally designed to stabilize the system — brought the global economy to its knees. Regulators, who had often stood on the sideline and allowed Wall Street to police itself, saw the ugly consequences rapidly unfold before them.

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Season 2012 Episode 5

May 22, 2012

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Money, Power and Wall Street, Part 2
Season 2012 Episode 10

Apr 24, 2012