This week's Frontline, Money, Power and Wall Street was a fantastic overview of the financial crisis. Maybe other news organizations have forgotten about the story, but Frontline continued to research the history and puts more into perspective. I did learn quite a few things. My only issue was that there were too many generic shots of city skylines, bank plaques and trading floors while Will Lyman narrated. I think some graphs and infographics might have helped to explain how money and risked were transferred and who all the players were and how they related.
The first hour was about the technical aspects, what CDO's and CDS's are, how the housing bubble was involved. They found the originators of these products from the early 90s and walked through their original purpose and how things got tangled over time. The second hour was about the governments reaction to Bear and Lehman. I learned about the details of the meeting that McCain called (remember when he "suspended his campaign"?) and how Obama was far more on top of things. They raised really good questions like why the Fed did no planning during the summer of 2008 when they knew things were going bad.
Check your listings and see when it's on and watch. I think it should be required viewing by all members of Congress. Well and also by anyone who is still against regulation of derivatives and thinks we shouldn't have done the bailouts at all (certainly we could have done them better). There are also two more parts (hours) that premiere next week. Surprisingly, I'm really looking forward to them.
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