Breaking the Bank
By Barry Ritholtz - June 17th, 2009, 9:21PM
In Breaking the Bank, FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (Inside the Meltdown, Bush’s War) draws on a rare combination of high-profile interviews with key players Ken Lewis and former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to reveal the story of two banks at the heart of the financial crisis, the rocky merger, and the government’s new role in taking over — some call it “nationalizing” — the American banking system.
If you doubt for a moment that the TARP was a ruse to cover up for Citigroup be sure to watch at the 30 minute mark about how Paulson got the 9 banks to accept the TARP money.
(wait a moment for video to load)
Hat tip Joe of The Millennial Project
June 18th, 2009 at 12:09 am
The Fed is Dead thats what this expert said http://bluelori.blogspot.com/2009/06/fed-is-dead.html
and I sure hope Ron Paul’s bill to Audit those crooks gets pushed through but I doubt it having paid off obama as a junior senator why do you think citi fraud was the largest contributor to the obamageddon’s inaugeration.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:05 am
I guess it is JustOne point of view, but if PBS really wanted to explain what was going on, how could they do so without a single mention of the role of “Mark To Market” accounting. Would any of the “crisis” have occured if a simple adjustment had been made (the one now in place) in the way bonds with limited markets are treated in the accounting system for bank capital?
So much drama, so much discussion of “toxic” assets, so much focus on personalities … not one mention of the MTM issue that forced banks to write down assets that were (and continue) paying essentially as much interest as mortgages have always paid. Am I missing something?
June 18th, 2009 at 9:44 am
[...] TMP Makes ‘The Big Picture’ Barry Ritholtz, author of upcoming ‘Bailout Nation’ and the blog, ‘The Big Picture’ posted a entry in response to Tuesday’s post. The original post discussed the Frotnline piece on TARP. Visit Barry’s post and blog here. [...]