Product Description

The bets were huge and risky, billions of dollars on the housing market. Superbanks reaped billions of dollars, and gobbled up competitors. Then the bottom dropped out, massive losses on Wall Street nearly broke the banks and many are on the brink of failure. As the federal government contemplates what could become a massive nationalization of the industry, watch as FRONTLINE tells the inside story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27084 in DVD
• Brand: PBS
• Released on: 2009-08-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 60 minutes

Customer Reviews

The modern economic morass is one piece of history that everyone needs to learn about, because no one can afford to repeat it!
Breaking the Bank is an episode of the award-winning "Frontline" television series, now available on DVD. The true-life story of Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and former Merrill CEO Jon Thain and the risks they took amid a financial crisis threatening to destroy the American economy, Breaking the Bank presents a dramatic yet unbiased accounting of the facts as the federal government was forced to seriously consider nationalizing the banking industry - or risking nationwide economic collapse. Readers of all backgrounds will appreciate this riveting glimpse into the inner workings of economic titans with glass ankles; Breaking the Bank is especially recommended for public library DVD collections - the modern economic morass is one piece of history that everyone needs to learn about, because no one can afford to repeat it!

Bush's House of Cards... Tumbled Long Before Obama
Frontline offers thoughtful blow-by-blow coverage of the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. There's lots of inside baseball here -- but the essential value of this video is the chronology of key events and the (questionable) actions of the players involved.

How soon we forget -- and how easily the media now distort -- the factual events of this economic disaster. It was September 2008 when Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson pushed $700 billion of TARP funds and governmental controls on the banks in an attempt to counter the failure of Lehman Bros. Paulson then forced upon B of A the panicked acquisition of toxic Merrill-Lynch. Not presented in this video was the $13.4 billion bailout literally handed to GM and $4 billion to Chrysler in December of 2008. It seems the "invisible hand" of the market wasn't quite so self-correcting during the last days of Bush/Cheney casino capitalism.

Beyond the intricacies of these financial maneuvers and the personality quirks of the power brokers involved, the insights viewers should glean from this documentary are: (1) since Reagan, this country has allowed the dismantling of federal financial regulation to our peril, (2) appropriate oversight and transparency in the public and private sectors should be mandated, and (3) the core of our economy (and this democracy) erodes when the interests of corporate wealth and personal wealth continually eclipse our common wealth. This video brings to mind a quote from Justice Louis Brandeis, "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."

Absolute rubbish.
This is quite possible the worst piece ever done by Frontline. Practically no reporting involved on what was really happening that brought down the banking industry, and to make matters worse, ends with a quip by E. Warren about how all the glory days of banking are gone. Granted when this was produced, it was probably early in 2009, but by the June 2009 air date, could she be more wrong? Incredibly disappointing. This story isnt over yet.