Save now on popular classic TV favorites such as Charlies Angels, Sanford and Son, Soap and many more. Offer ends May 31, 2013. |
Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Special Features
None.
Editorial Reviews
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.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
It began to unravel in September 2008, in the same month that President Bush announces the fundamentals of the economy are still strong.
Investment firms and banks are about to collapse like a stack of dominos as Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson attempts to stop the economic hemorrhaging. But his bandages of mergers, TARP agreements, and takeovers unravel as the details of the meetings, mergers, arm-twisting, and deals become public. Congressional hearings, stockholder fury, and disclosures take their toll as one CEO after the other is thrown under the bus of an outraged public. A new administration marks the end of the party, as bankers knew it.
Frontline delivers with interest, as usual. Written and directed by Michael Kirk, the banking crisis is distilled into incremental deposits of factual information that give the viewer a chronological account of events that went on in the boardrooms and the floor of the stockmarket. Jim Gilmore's voice is perhaps the best in the business, and it is always a pleasure to listen to him narrate.
There is a reason that "Frontline" is one of the best and most informative programs on television. After you see this, you'll know why. You will not only be entertained, but perhaps, better informed.
The cost is certainly worth it, and it shouldn't break the bank.
Investment firms and banks are about to collapse like a stack of dominos as Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson attempts to stop the economic hemorrhaging. But his bandages of mergers, TARP agreements, and takeovers unravel as the details of the meetings, mergers, arm-twisting, and deals become public. Congressional hearings, stockholder fury, and disclosures take their toll as one CEO after the other is thrown under the bus of an outraged public. A new administration marks the end of the party, as bankers knew it.
Frontline delivers with interest, as usual. Written and directed by Michael Kirk, the banking crisis is distilled into incremental deposits of factual information that give the viewer a chronological account of events that went on in the boardrooms and the floor of the stockmarket. Jim Gilmore's voice is perhaps the best in the business, and it is always a pleasure to listen to him narrate.
There is a reason that "Frontline" is one of the best and most informative programs on television. After you see this, you'll know why. You will not only be entertained, but perhaps, better informed.
The cost is certainly worth it, and it shouldn't break the bank.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By John Hayes
Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a very informative, well produced program on the financial slide that occurred on Wall Street, which lead to the Federal Bailout. No pundits, no lies or yelling, this program is straight information that tell the facts. Even non-bankers will understand this excellent Frontline program.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Tony Polito
For a much much better and far more thorough telling, watch the 2010 film "Inside Job."
A too-narrow, though quite comprehensible, one-hour look-see at the 2008 Financial Meltdown.
The hour starts just prior to Mo/09/15/2008, when Lehman Bros. declares bankruptcy--and ends on We/02/11/2009, when all the investment-house & bank CEOs are called in for a tongue-lashing by the House Financial Services Committee. The viewer's understanding of pre-Lehman events is presumed.
Basically here's what (little) this Frontline episode will teach you:
* Paulson (Treasury) told CEO Ken Lewis (BoA) to absorb Merrill. No stranger to acquisitions, Lewis is tickled pink. Paulson says do it immediately, without taking time for due diligence, to offset the pending bad news about Lehman.
* When credit, banks and markets freeze up anyway, Paulson is finally cured of his life-long academic delusion that unconstrained free markets magically optimize and perfect everything in sight. So Paulson runs to Congress hat-in-hand and then ram-rods TARP money (and government control) down the banks' throats.
* When Lewis learns just how toxic Merrill is, he wants out, but Paulson says no. Lewis' stockholders want answers; he finds a scapegoat and distraction in Merrill CEO John Thain and the huge executive bonuses Thain negotiated into the deal.
* Then Lewis follows through on his swing by canning Thain.
* The hour ends with several rants on how America's banks have been nationalized - even though many of the banks are even now arranging to pay back TARP money, so as to be rid of any government influence/control.
This production's best recommendation is that, somehow, the producers got a number of key players on camera - Lewis and Thain the most notable and Paulson the most notably absent - each sharing their perspective on just how it all went down. Without their vignettes, there's not much 'telling' found here.
Original broadcast date Tu/06/16/2009.
A too-narrow, though quite comprehensible, one-hour look-see at the 2008 Financial Meltdown.
The hour starts just prior to Mo/09/15/2008, when Lehman Bros. declares bankruptcy--and ends on We/02/11/2009, when all the investment-house & bank CEOs are called in for a tongue-lashing by the House Financial Services Committee. The viewer's understanding of pre-Lehman events is presumed.
Basically here's what (little) this Frontline episode will teach you:
* Paulson (Treasury) told CEO Ken Lewis (BoA) to absorb Merrill. No stranger to acquisitions, Lewis is tickled pink. Paulson says do it immediately, without taking time for due diligence, to offset the pending bad news about Lehman.
* When credit, banks and markets freeze up anyway, Paulson is finally cured of his life-long academic delusion that unconstrained free markets magically optimize and perfect everything in sight. So Paulson runs to Congress hat-in-hand and then ram-rods TARP money (and government control) down the banks' throats.
* When Lewis learns just how toxic Merrill is, he wants out, but Paulson says no. Lewis' stockholders want answers; he finds a scapegoat and distraction in Merrill CEO John Thain and the huge executive bonuses Thain negotiated into the deal.
* Then Lewis follows through on his swing by canning Thain.
* The hour ends with several rants on how America's banks have been nationalized - even though many of the banks are even now arranging to pay back TARP money, so as to be rid of any government influence/control.
This production's best recommendation is that, somehow, the producers got a number of key players on camera - Lewis and Thain the most notable and Paulson the most notably absent - each sharing their perspective on just how it all went down. Without their vignettes, there's not much 'telling' found here.
Original broadcast date Tu/06/16/2009.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
An inside view with very informative and insightful interviews with the key players. If you want to understand what happened with the GFC then I recommend you watch this Frontline... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Michael
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Overview
What I like most about PBS is that it has far less political affiliation than the big guys like MSNBC and Fox News. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Michael A. Saxton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bush's Fantasy Became Our Nightmare
The precipitating events behind the 2008 Wall Street meltdown are too often forgotten and too easily distorted by today's media. Read more
Published on September 7, 2010 by kennita andross
5.0 out of 5 stars
The modern economic morass is one piece of history that everyone needs...
Breaking the Bank is an episode of the award-winning "Frontline" television series, now available on DVD. Read more
Published on September 13, 2009 by Midwest Book Review
1.0 out of 5 stars
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... Read more
Published on August 11, 2009 by Geoff In SF
