$(document).ready( function () { talk_rendercallback({"enabled":"0","islive":"0","eid":5558,"total":"72","discussion":[{"nm":"John","rs":"0","ms":"Henry Ford once said that it\'s probably better that the average American doesn\'t understand the way our banking and financial system works, because if they did, there would surely be a revolution in this country. This program was just one example of how things work. The leadership of our country has been corrupted to the core. The revolution is coming; it reared it\'s head in Mass. when Scott Brown was elected and there will be more to come in Nov.. Vote out the incumbents and insist that we need term limits in Congress.        ","pt":"Feb 19, 2010 14:20"},{"nm":"Thomas K. Johnson","rs":"0","ms":"Even now, Alan Greenspan and the mainstream financial press still do not acknowledge the damage that unregulated OTC derivatives trading did to worldwide financial markets.  Case in point:  The March 1 issue of &quot;Fortune&quot; magazine contains an article in which Greenspan attempts to deflect criticism of his past actions.  The article (by Geoff Colvin) contains not a word about Brooksley Born or her efforts to shed light on the derivatives markets.  Instead, we are treated to the straw-man argument that Greenspan deviated from the Taylor rule (for setting interest rates).  Greenspan then dismisses this argument with a weak, three-part deflection that conveniently ignores the lack of regulation and record-keeping that Born suggested was necessary.Greenspan may have, as he said, &quot;found a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.&quot;  But any correction of this &quot;flaw&quot; through tighter regulation is still anathema to the prevailing culture on Wall Street.  ","pt":"Feb 19, 2010 09:15"},{"nm":"Joe Wagner","rs":"0","ms":"So what happened after everyone realized Summers and Geithner were wrong? They were rewarded witheven better jobs. And Brooksley Born? She\'s out of government. Why wasn\'t she offered the Secretaryof the Treasury job? I\'m really sick and tired of incompetent people in government being promoted upwards. Then when they fail, they continue being promoted in the same system.There is no reckoning or contriteness. Its weird, you get better jobs for failing miserably where the sane, competent people are driven out. Then, after they fail completely, they continue on in the same system promoting the same policies that produced failure. Wouldn\'t you want to address the failed policies and hire people that were completely against them when they were instituted? Instead, the people who failed (Bernanke, Geithner, Summers) have a couple of hearings, answer questions and continue on just like before. What a system! Sign me up!","pt":"Feb 19, 2010 08:56"},{"nm":"Jim Biasi","rs":"0","ms":"The root of the problem is that some people wanted to make easy money.  If you did the research beyond the fact that you could make easy money, you would have noticed that these derivatives (or insurance policies) were not backed by anything. State Farm or Allstate need to keep cash around to pay off their policies; derivatives are a gamble with nothing to back them up.  So if you bought them, you had the chance to make or lose money.  For a while, if you owned derivatives, you made good money.  The problem was when they started to lose money, the government stepped in and THEY backed them up.  What a great product it turned out to be that you reaped the reward without the risk! Except that the taxpayers paid the risk without the reward.  Had AIG taken the beatdown they deserved, there would be no HUGE bonuses this year; they would be gone.","pt":"Feb 18, 2010 17:12"},{"nm":"Paulette Hebert","rs":"0","ms":"One of the things they left out about LTCM is that Myron Scholes was the modeler / math guy.  EVERY MBA student learns about the Black-Scholes Options  Model.  Finance 101.So what does that say?  The demise of LTCM didn\'t make anyone rethink the use of models?  (For LTCM, my understanding is that they only used 3 years of back data.  Gee, I\'m not a math geek.  But even I know that\'s a major &quot;assumption&quot; / flaw.)  All those derivitives (that no one understod) were based on models (that no one understood).I guess that\'s why Lloyd Blankfein is worth the big bucks.  ","pt":"Feb 17, 2010 21:20"},{"nm":"Paulette Hebert","rs":"0","ms":"As always, a very insightful Frontline special.The thing that amazes me is the rhetoric coming from the Tea Party people.  I\'m not sure how / why they don\'t understand that laissez-faire capitalism is a recipe for disaster.  Hell, we\'d still have 12-year-olds working in sweat shops if the government hadn\'t made that illegal.But somehow the financial crisis together w/ TARP has made the Tea Party people even MORE prone to Ayn Rand\'s view of the world.  Their mantra: government / government regulation is bad; free markets are good.  (?????)","pt":"Feb 17, 2010 21:09"},{"nm":"Bonnie Urzen","rs":"0","ms":"Thank you to Brooksly Born for trying to protect the public interest.  Has any regulation been put in place since President Obama took office?  Why are people not totally outraged over this and calling for change?  If threats to our money doesn\'t drive us (citizens) to become more active, what will?  ","pt":"Feb 17, 2010 17:07"},{"nm":"Chuck","rs":"0","ms":" Brookley Born For President","pt":"Feb 17, 2010 12:18"},{"nm":"Jerry Rotundo","rs":"0","ms":"Why aren\'t these folks in prison? This was and still is the largest fraud in the history of the free world. Unfortunately, our current administration has appointed some of the same individuals to the same positions of power and public trust who knowingly allowed this to happen. To think the depth of toxic wasteland approaches 600 trillion dollars is impossible for me to comprehend. Thanks to good ol\' Ronald Reagan, the godfather of deregulation, and all those free thinkers who followed in his footsteps. The extinction event of the middle class has taken place, and the financial elete has stolen the accumulated of generations with impunity and appearently complete immunity to prosicution. ","pt":"Feb 17, 2010 11:34"},{"nm":"Mike S.","rs":"0","ms":"Seemed like it was too late for regulation - too much invested. They did not want panic to ensue. But it was all going to collapse, eventually.  Regulation should have occurred years earlier when Warren Buffet warned of this in 2003 - See \<a href=&quot;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2817995.stm&quot;\>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2817995.stm\<\/a\> ","pt":"Feb 17, 2010 10:43"},{"nm":"Michael E. Russell","rs":"0","ms":"Don\'t worry about FRAUD, the Market will take care of itself, and denial is a river in Africa. How can American economists put such a stupid man as Greenspan so high upon a pedestal. Any 2nd year philosophy student can point out the flaws in Rand\'s Objectivism, so if he is so smart how come he bought it for so long? ","pt":"Feb 15, 2010 04:56"},{"nm":"Craig Jenson","rs":"0","ms":"I knew something was wrong in 1999 when I bought new construction in the SF Bay Area of CA. It was too easy to get a big mortgage and the &quot;mortgage insurance&quot; item showed up. I sold the house and made money before things went bad. I listened to Brooksley Born. I\'ld like to thank Brooksley Born for trying to do something about the corruption in the financial world. I\'m an engineer and I have little respect for what the &quot;finance wizards&quot; do. It is not &quot;rocket science&quot;. The math really isn\'t that difficult. All it takes is an environment of unabashed greed and a few computers to do what they have done. They are not part of some kind of &quot;brain trust&quot;. They deserve our contempt and distrust at this point and I\'m disgusted to see Gietner and Summers are still on the government payroll. Why are these guys still around? Do they know too much? Have they changed? Isn\'t there anyone better? I think there is. I offer Brooksley as proof that there are always better people to surround the president and it is sad to realize that the political system is still suppressing them.","pt":"Nov 15, 2009 19:26"},{"nm":"David Salk","rs":"0","ms":"This is a very important, and very disturbing piece. There are many people who become involved in institutions to &quot;game them&quot;. Not to create any value, or create meaningful positive change, but to drain the system of its blood for their own gain. This is the essence of the decline of America. As the saying goes you are either building or destroying - there is no in between. As a country, our manufacturing has declined precipitously - a signature of our decline. Our nation\'s financial centers have become the adversaries of those they are paid to serve...consumers pay outrageous fees for credit, adding further to the decline of the working class. We are encouraged to consume, and so we do. But the miscreants of Wall St. are not interested in creating true wealth - saving, building, creating, working - they are only interested in acquisition of wealth and power, and that acquisition steals opportunity from working class Americans. We buy and sell homes to make a quick profit, adding to the high rents that must be paid to support the mortgages, but if we get ours, &quot;who cares&quot;....There is no political will to fix this - it is a dire situation and without drastic action, will get much much worse...it is sad, and very scary","pt":"Oct 28, 2009 13:25"},{"nm":"Murdoch Ravlin","rs":"0","ms":"1) There should be a return to 90% tax levels for those making ridiculous salaries. 2) There should be a cap say $5000 on political contributions from any one entity. This would eliminate the prospect of politicians on the one hand trying to bring in regulations to control the excesses of these big banks, and on the other hand begging them for political contributions.  ","pt":"Oct 27, 2009 11:00"},{"nm":"Sati","rs":"0","ms":"I think, the CEO\'s of any listed company, should be paid a max of 8 times the salary,bonus of the lowest paid employee. Anything extra should be taxed at 90%. These CEO\'s think they own the company not the shareholders. That would be a solution to get better quality of leaders and also force them to take long term view   Are you listening, Mr President?","pt":"Oct 26, 2009 00:28"},{"nm":"Gary Graham","rs":"0","ms":"First, Frontline is terrific. Money will win out. The village idiot can see that the crisis is going to happen again. While the foreclosure rate is beginning to ease, it continues to affect many, many Americans daily. Credit remains tight, banks of varying size are being closed and the FDIC has run out funds. Wall Street insiders are still minding the store at Treasury and the Fed. The Congress seems paralyzed by K Street/Wall Street political influence. Sounds like a recipe for a repeat of history.  God bless Barach Obama, but frankly, with all the forces in business, government and the media arrayed against him, the system is too big for any man to change. Please Frontline, keep looking into the mess. You among other PBS broadcasts are the only ones that seem willing to do so.  ","pt":"Oct 25, 2009 23:30"},{"nm":"Chumi","rs":"0","ms":"One thing I will never understand is how the US GOV & the FED had the audacity to ask the tax payers in that country to &quot;bail out&quot; the big financial institutions, and how come the citizens are not even capable to question why they were forced to do so.How come the FED did not just print more money? They say it would have been too inflationary. Well, I have news for you, get ready for second round of bad news, becuase eventually the US will have to deal with this &quot;bail out&quot; related inflation, as well as the enourmous unregulated amount of &quot;money&quot; being trasnsacted in the derivatives market (over 500 TRILLION dollars)......I hate to say this but, financially speaking, the US is in deep, deep trouble....And then comes the amount of US debt held by China, and then comes the lack of real industrial production remaining in the US, and then comes the stock market reality check, on and on and on....","pt":"Oct 25, 2009 15:08"},{"nm":"Arnold Richards","rs":"0","ms":"Thank you for this presentation but it is not enough. don\'t stop here. don\'t let this rest. You must challange all the guilty parties including the senate, congress and of course the Obama Administratin financial advisory staff taht should be in jail, not in the white house. our econemy is not safe even at this moment. Make them all admit that they are servants of puppet masters and not the american people, only then can we begin anew. I will hold the rest of my thoughts.","pt":"Oct 25, 2009 11:47"},{"nm":"B. Parker","rs":"0","ms":"Great work Frontline.You know, a few comments down, someone is hammering you for only now releasing this story rather than several yrs ago and he goes on as if you have a crystal ball, asking for your solutions to every potential issue down the road on our planet.I think we need to LEARN to LEARN from our mistakes.  I would not have learned OF this mistake until Frontline brought it to my attention.Bash the media all you want, but they don\'t have crystal balls.  And how can you expect the media to have forseen something that our country\'s most elite individuals, at the top could not forsee it?Keep up the good work Frontline.","pt":"Oct 25, 2009 01:12"},{"nm":"Larry Meyer","rs":"0","ms":"I\'d like to respectfully reply to a comment below by Dan Phillips, who questions &quot;Frontline&quot; and &quot;the left&quot;, which says:&quot;Typical liberal take on the problem. Does Frontline ever do a program saying how great free market economics are. Doubt it. The show is always slanted liberal/left.&quot;My Reply:One thing I\'ve noticed is that whenever someone uses the &quot;Left/Right&quot; or &quot;Liberal/Conservative&quot; labels, 90% of the time it\'s the RIGHT side that is guilty of it. The bottom line is, we are all in this together, so check your ego at the door and become part of the solution, not part of the problem.The days of playing the &quot;Liberal media&quot; card every time the news makes someone from the right look bad are over.  I\'m not saying Alan Greenspan should be sent to the electric chair, or abandon free market economics.  We just need to assess OUR mistakes as a country, learn from it and grow. Regulating OTC derivatives can be done without having to eliminate them completely.  Likewise, we need to excercise more rational judgement when it comes to Home Loans. If people cannot afford them, the banks need to start excercising better judgement.  But if you don\'t regulate these things, it\'s going to happen again.  So call it &quot;big gov\'t&quot; call it whatever the latest socialistic catch phrase Fox News has come up with, but the bottom line is, we need more regulations on thses things.It\'s not the Republicans fault, it\'s not the Democrats fault, it\'s OUR fault.  ","pt":"Oct 25, 2009 00:24"},{"nm":"Mark Buckwalter","rs":"0","ms":"First of all, I think the &quot;guidelines for commentary&quot; stipulated are excellent. It serves to remind one of how degraded and pointless the hot air on some media outlets has become.Concerning Frontlines coverage of the financial crisis: It has been superb. I\'m especially impressed by the chronology-the valuable historical context-provided, that clarifies just how we got into this mess.  An ideology has been discredited. However, it\'s apparent that real change has not occurred. Since Congress is bought and paid for by these deluded financial egoists, it\'s up to the public to demand tighter oversight and regulation.  If we don\'t get it-we will definitely suffer an economic depression more crippling than the 30\'s. It could well  sink this country into third world status.  The American dream is in our hands now.","pt":"Oct 24, 2009 10:02"},{"nm":"Jo Walker","rs":"0","ms":"In fairmess I have to tell you that I haven\'t seen the episode and I\'ve glanced only very briefly at this website. I can\'t bear to do more. There is a modern pattern to media coverage, and it appears this item fits it: The media styles itself as the great seeker-after-the-truth by presenting articles such as these when they are evident to everyone and therefore safe - and useless. Your mandate would have been served if you had been hammering home this point from 1987 - or 1980 or even, I submit, 1973 (effects of the oil embargo) or 1968 (the first year, since 1941, of the redistribution of income to the wealthy). What happens next? Are you tackling the issue of what happens when the American dollar loses its value at the same time that America is hugely in debt to foreign powers. (Hint, have you noticed how Britain pays homage to the oil-rich nations, however tyranical; you are in debt to China)? Are you exploring the security implications of the end of American world power? Can you tell the American public (or any of us in the dying West) what extremely difficult trade-offs we must face to retain our current lifestyles? What is the cost of indolence? What is the cost of peace? Even looking back, would you tell Americans what the difference is, in real dollars, between *individual* incomes currently vs, say, 1970 (when I entered the workforce? I\'m be impressed by genuinely courageous reporting, not the currently vogue pseudo-couragueous kind.","pt":"Oct 23, 2009 16:36"},{"nm":"CJ","rs":"0","ms":"Well done.  I didn\'t see much on the sub prime and prime mortgage crisis and the impact excessive oil speculation had on cratoring an already severly depressed economy.  The Investment Bankers perpetrated the oil speculation bubble to back fill huge losses and that wiped out the consumer and all of the other industries that were hanging on for dear life.  Think business and the &quot;market&quot; are the best way to run society?  Really?  Where is reporting on the death of the &quot;Pro Business&quot; ideology?  Pro business for whom?  Over what time frame?  Bears?  Lehman?  Wamu?  Countrywide? BofA?  Merrill?  GM?  Ford?  Toyota? United? American?  Fed Ex?  UPS? Target? BP? Name a sector and they have all been crushed.  Short term executive compensation - not just risk taking, but accelerated compensation, share back dating, manipulated performance reporting, m&a activity, etc...  and a complete domination of the market by short term speculative interests still controls our economy today to the detriment of 100\'s of millions of people in the U.S. and billions across the globe. And President Obama is as clueless as Clinton was.","pt":"Oct 23, 2009 15:15"},{"nm":"Nelle Bly","rs":"0","ms":"Thank you Frontline, better late than never but why not complete the threads to Paulson and to Lehman\'s collapse;were they not the only ones to defy the Fed and Treasury and refuse to kick in for Long Term Caps losses?  And why oh why is there no mention of Mary Shapiro?  ","pt":"Oct 23, 2009 03:23"},{"nm":"Ben Dover","rs":"0","ms":"What\'s the matter--a little afraid to take a risk my fellow Americans???  Well then start your own bank and let taxpayers take it for you.  It\'s the new American way.","pt":"Oct 22, 2009 22:26"},{"nm":"Donna Clements","rs":"0","ms":"Who did we think we were kidding?  The we being those of us that &quot;worked&quot; the industy - those of us who were holding our breaths, sitting on a ticking timebomb, all the while selling irrational-returning investments like our lives depended on it?  Oh, I forgot, our lives did depned on it.  So did our mortgages, our children\'s private school tuition, our lawncare engineers fee, and the checks we wrote to our tricolorist hairstyler and mani-pedi curists  And what about the buyers - the purchasers of those irrational-returning investments who were so greedy for a higher rate of return that their grandmothers\' souls would go on the proverbial auction block for a 1/2% more?  Don\'t tell me we didn\'t see it coming?  Don\'t tell me we slept comfortably at night?  The subconsciousness of each of us was screaming for help &quot;Please let the market balance itself today&quot;, &quot;Please let me jump off this roller coaster and sell snowcones to the eskimoes for a living.&quot;  Thank goodness, the bubble bursted.  I, for one, can finally breathe.","pt":"Oct 22, 2009 21:32"},{"nm":"David Ernst","rs":"0","ms":"Weill&,Reed,Greenspan,Rubin,Summers,Gramm&Co.,Bernanke,Paulson,Geitneer,SEC, Wall Street,Rating Agencies,Lobbyists,Elected Represenatives and Ms.Blakesley Born ; the sharpest knife in the drawer goes to Ms.Blakesley Born and the band played on....Excellent Documentary my hat is off to you....","pt":"Oct 22, 2009 14:52"},{"nm":"Gil White","rs":"0","ms":"Thank you Frontline for this work and putting it into the light of day for all to see. As a community bank board of director I have been trying to connect the dots. Real Estate and the Financial Crisis(Anthony Downs, 2009, Brookings) covers the massive influx of global capital into this country in 2000, which was seeking a safe haven when stocks and bond markets tanked, and the unregulated derivatives markets were more than happy to assist in placing loys of it into real estate. Michael Moore\'s movie(Capitalism: A Love Story), while unwarranted or exaggerated in its conclusions for pres\criptive remedies, and Matt Taibbi\'s articles in Rolling Stone have also been useful in helping connect the dots. Bottom line: in spite of the righteous call for justice on some of these perpetrators, Main Street needs help now; not tomorrow, yesterday! That should preoccupy us all. There are millions of innocents caught up in this sunami. For starters someone could provide me with a definition as to just what exactly constitutes a &quot;credit worthy&quot; borrower these days? The FDIC has apparently put them on the Endangered Species List.","pt":"Oct 22, 2009 11:35"},{"nm":"al","rs":"0","ms":"They (Congress)should just go ahead and legalize counterfeit money, because that what this is.I could say I have a bank vault full of gold bars, not have to prove it, and borrow all I want against my &quot;gold&quot;.  Free market, my eye!  More like Liar\'s Poker.Derivatives should be limited to direct links to commodities, not paper backing paper.This makes about as much sense as spending $300 million apiece on jet fighters, when we\'re in two wars against enemies with no planes.","pt":"Oct 22, 2009 08:08"},{"nm":"Not an American","rs":"0","ms":"Being outside of US and looking from the sideline, this blaming game on economists, politicians and even lobbists is ridiculous. Last time I check on CNN, USA is still a democratic society. These politicians and advicers are elected by AMERICANS. This is like asking someone to go on a date with you, then blame that person for being ugly and ruining your night, but continue on to marrying that person. Psychologists have a name for this type of behaviour, it\'s called bipolar disorder.If you don\'t like your politicians, change them. If you don\'t like lobbist, google them up, then throw eggs at them (shoes are suggested by Iraqis). Better yet, grab a form from your local city hall and create your own political party. Now that\'s democracy.Americans have become too lazy. They are too lazy to learn about the people they voted for and do a credit check. They are too lazy to buy an econ 101 book from Chapters and read it, before putting their savings into the market. All Amercians wanted was to pay someone to take their money, look them in the eyes, and tell them that everything was going to be ok. Well guess what, &quot;there\'s no free lunch&quot;, not even the lemons. &quot;Derivatives are too complicated to understand?&quot; You know what happens when you tell a 5 years old that something is too complicated for them to understand? They ask why. For me, I enrolled in an undergrad degree in Economics.Wake up America and start studying.","pt":"Oct 22, 2009 04:31"},{"nm":"Len Gardner","rs":"0","ms":"Although Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and Levitz are singled out for particular criticism in this fine program, the list of culprits is long. Certainly near the top would be Milton Friedman, Phil Gramm and Wendy Gramm.My only reservations about the show was that it did not discuss Phil and Wendy Gramm\'s tireless efforts to deregulate everything in sight. Their damage to the economy started with Enron, as prime enablers of that fiasco. Alas, it did not end there.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 19:40"},{"nm":"2togo","rs":"0","ms":"All presidents since JFK have allowed the Federal Reserve to undermine America. It\'s amazing how few grasped the significance of Alan Greenspan being knighted by the Queen of England! Greenspan was knighted on September 26, 2002. An obvious reward for preventing any real discussion, or change, of the Federal Reserve during the Sarbanes-Oxley Act debates. Had an American President been knighted, serious questions would have arisen. It was much easier to reward her manager, Alan Greenspan! Please don\'t believe that Greenspan has the ultimate power. He is only a little man, faithfully serving his queen and the Rothschild central banking cartel. ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 19:32"},{"nm":"John Brassard, Sr.","rs":"0","ms":"A great presentation, albeit a little late.  Our country will not be restored to its former greatness until our public officials become the people\'s servants, as Brookley Born is, through revived ethical and moral conduct.  ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 18:30"},{"nm":"Dan Phillips","rs":"0","ms":"Typical liberal take on the problem. Does Frontline ever do a program saying how great free market economics are. Doubt it. The show is always slanted liberal/left.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 16:33"},{"nm":"Herschel Weinstock","rs":"0","ms":"THIS INFORMATION SHOULD BE REQUIRED NEWS FOR PRIME TIME, MAJOR MEDIA NETWORKS. [I am absolutely furious that Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and Geithner are not serving life-time prison sentences and forced to hand over their life savings to the appropriate sources for redistribution to the American Common Wealth... since they are directly responsible for creating the worst economic thievery, fraud and human rights and economic violations against the American society. I\'m even more furious that Summers is working as Chief Economic Adviser and Geithner as Secretary of Treasure under the now Obama Administration. --REMOVE THESE WALL-STREET THUG CRIMINALS FROM OFFICE IMMEDIATELY. TAKE BERNAKE TOO! HE\'s ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS AND FAILING ONCE AGAIN OUR AMERICAN COMMON WEALTH. --WHERE THE HELL IS THE OVERSIGHT, THE ACCOUNTABILITY, THE LEGAL JUSTICE, THE PUNISHMENT???","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 16:27"},{"nm":"Karin La Plante","rs":"0","ms":" Can\'t believe what I just saw on Frontline tonight. I feel that this government is for Wall Street and only Wall Street.  Where is the change President Obama.    Good Work Frontline","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 15:44"},{"nm":"James Matteucci","rs":"0","ms":"Frontline is telling us that the Lobbist are trying very hard to keep congress from passing the reforms....Why then dosn\'t congress do the right thing? That is, tell the lobbist to go away.What here, is preventing congress from acting badly?","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 14:45"},{"nm":"CanujiveClive","rs":"0","ms":"Agreed, Solutions?  Here\'s mine.. Break up &quot;too big to fail&quot; orgs that exceed $50,000,000,000 net assets.  Eliminate Loan derivatives. Why? Finance companies making a loan should honour it! Housing - ban schemes that falsly increase house prices (i.e. cash backs), set max loan to income ratio & min cash-down at 5%.   Stock Markets - set max ratios to equity for leveraged products, remove inhibitors to short selling.  Theory: &quot;contain the greed&quot; that over-inflates &quot;free&quot; markets and avoid much of the fallout.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 13:53"},{"nm":"Stu","rs":"0","ms":"Very disappointing.  The story is old news.  Why didn\'t Frontline run this story two years ago or one year ago?  Why didn\'t you have an Obama official on to explain the appointments of Larry &quot;sleepy eyes&quot; Summers and Tim &quot;turbo tax&quot; Geithner? The most disappointing aspect of your show is your willingness to accept Greenspan\'s silly explanation that it was his ideology that got it wrong.  Look deeper.  Who benefited from this fiasco?  Federal Reserve.  Globalists.  Statists.  Greenspan, Summers, and Rubin are errand boys for a shadowy elite bent on one world government.  I am also curious why you seemed to have detached the Federal Reserve from Greenspan.  His stance was the Federal Reserves stance.  ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 13:42"},{"nm":"Marty Moore Sr","rs":"0","ms":"I was noticing interesting shifts in the economy back in the later 90s and before. My first clues were the unrealistic &quot;on paper&quot; riches in the internet stocks and especially the large swings in the Dow et al - an unprecidented  roler coaster ride of record highs followed by record lows backa nd forth - I knew something was unstable and there was alot of hedging and speculation - selling and buying - profit specilation.  These showed me that things were out of control like a swerving automobile. Yet there all Amercans savings, retirements and such were at risk - yet no Americans could do anything about it. The lesson here - the succession of congresses and presidential administrations - regardless of party affiliation - knew virtually nothing about economics. The leaders and decision makers where actually playing follow the leaders in Greenspanand company. This tells me we expect too much from politicians who regularly make such decision in subject they know little or nothing about. And now we face even a larger concern. These same people are now trying to claim expertise in the healthcare field and refuse to learn from the shortcomings of the many nationalized systems that don\'t work anda re failing - and it scares the hell out of me to think they continue to pretend they understand. We lost our retirement and investmetns from the arrogance. Now must we loose our health care system too. what will be left of this once great country. I will vote my conscience but I pray others will set aside this PARTY LINE mentality and come to their senses. Elected officials who intend to just take over something are not the answer they ARE the problem as this has born out. Power is troublesome thing. LEt them stick to regulations in areas they understand.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 13:39"},{"nm":"WALTER RINKO","rs":"0","ms":"With all that\'s happened in the economy, there are still senators  supporting finacal markets with no regulations? Only legal corruption (lobbists buying a senate vote), can defend insanity (wanting to continue on a path thats caused total failure). Unfortunitly, the  American political system allows the defense of white collar crime, under the banner of deregulated free markets. Should we seek retribution in hindsight?  Moving forward, it\'s clear the American people must pressure their representatives to change the political system which allows billion-doller corporations to flood the government with lobbists that protect crimes that have been so distructive to the American people. This political system is also at the root of the healthhcare crises. Billion-doller insurance corpoations flooding the government with lobbists that protect there intrests (distroying lives by gutting peoples coverage to maximize corporate profits) After we regulate corporations, banks and insurance industries we should regulate lobbists and compleatly restore American democracy.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 13:22"},{"nm":"Zar","rs":"0","ms":"I have lived 30 years of my life in Soviet Union and 32 in the USA. Being exposed to both economic structures in person, I recognize, that the US is in grave danger; it is corrupt! The corruption is almost on the same level is in old USSR. It is in a form of institutional corruption rather then individual one.The executive and legislative branch of US government can not govern until and as long the “interest groups” control the government. Changing the government to more controlling one is not a solution; our election system must be cleansed of “wild money”. That would remove the built-in conflict of interest.The above is a one man opinion","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 13:13"},{"nm":"Fred Smith","rs":"0","ms":"This is with out doubt the finest presentation of the key causes of the mess this country is in now. Frontline lays it out so every citizen can understand the issues. The separation of Investment and Commercial Banks NEVER should have been undone by the politicians , despite the requests by these Banks to do so. People should be in jail for their incompetence in protecting the public. Some of them are in the current administration which is shameful. Please continue to play this as the people of this country need to understand what was done to them","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 11:59"},{"nm":"Eric","rs":"0","ms":"This should be part of the standard educational format.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 09:25"},{"nm":"Shirley Freienmuth","rs":"0","ms":"Having been employed in the the banking industry years ago (pre-Greenspan), it was difficult (almost painful and truly sickening at times) to watch and listen to how this whole situation developed and grew. Although examiners\' visits were not regarded with delight, it was a time for banks (and savings & loans) to get their houses in order and make the best presentations of themselves and their activities.  If problems were detected, they were dealt with, usually in a frank and forthright method.  My, how things have changed....or maybe they haven\'t and we\'ve all been living in some sort of dream world.  We didn\'t listen and learn from the savings & loan debacle or anything else.    ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 08:25"},{"nm":"davidp","rs":"0","ms":"I agree...I read the other day what some capitalists thought that the god of communism is dead.  I don´t think these genies of Wall Street are any better because in the end it is only to their benefit.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 08:07"},{"nm":"Lori Pearce","rs":"0","ms":"It is not easy for those of us on the outside of the Wall St elitest to understand what OTC is all about, but we all need to because our investments were all attached to it. This was unacceptable behavior for Greenspan and everyone involved in crushing Born should never have a say in our government again.I hope Frontline repeats this program over & over,everyone needs to know the facts. Thank you Frontline for being our window to the truth.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 07:42"},{"nm":"Klay Lund","rs":"0","ms":"It may be a satisfying thought - grab the bad guys that did this to us and lock them up, but what laws did they break?  The problem is that, starting with Regan, this country has run its affairs under a set of false notions and the voters go along with them, even now.  We have allowed special interests to gain control of the mechanisms of our government because we have scorned that government.  We refuse to recognize and expect dignified service; instead we ridicule, defame, and destroy.  Now power lies firmly in the hands of the wealthy and the greedy.  I think, sadly, Brooksley Born is correct when she says we will go through many cycles of loss before we learn our lesson.  I hope she is correct about our ability to learn anything. ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 01:59"},{"nm":"Jasmine Johnson","rs":"0","ms":"Re: John Vanderzon     Greenspan, Summers, Rubin, and Levitz go down who else will go down? Regan? Clinton? Bush 1 and 2? They are the men who put these people in power. These are the men who took there advice and set the game plan. Where do you stop punishing? How about the people who were duped into putting there life savings into the stock market? ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 01:54"},{"nm":"RR","rs":"0","ms":"After watching the Frontline special on Greenspan, Summers, Rubin, Levitz and I\'m sure others whose names haven\'t been mentioned yet....is it possible for all citizens of this country that have had their lives so devastated by these few extremely arrogant men make a citizen arrests on them?  I didn\'t know anything about what I heard tonight.  Probably most of the general public don\'t have the time to know all the details of men that are working in secret!  The public only know what the media tells us and the media are told only what they can tell us by these type of men in power!  How are we, the American public, supposed to know the truth when no one ever speaks the truth to us?  After watching tonight, I am moved by my anger and sadness of feeling violated by the uncompassionate way these men have devastated so many of my friends and family financially.  I would like to know if anyone can tell me what is the best way to get the word out so we can have this spoken about even more.  More people need to know.  Who would it be best for me to write to about getting Brooksley Born\'s deriviatives regulations passed by Congress? Thanx for any suggestions?","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 01:46"},{"nm":"Jonathon Lietz","rs":"0","ms":"Well that took a lot of brains , seems to me it really isn\'t a great human accomplishment to go construct a product so complicated that you need to hire the best math and physics graduates to put them together and even the banks that bought the products will agree they were too complicated to review effectively.Shame on Phil Gramm and his fellow Legislators who took part in buying into this insane idea that markets can self regulate. Go back and study history.Jonathon Lietz","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 01:38"},{"nm":"jim","rs":"0","ms":"Thank you.Rep Frank wold re regulate the market with loop holes.Why isn\'t Ms Born included in this process. The rich know better, they have taken control.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 01:10"},{"nm":"Chris","rs":"0","ms":"The appointment announced tonight (Oct. 20) of Patrick M. Parkinson as the director of the Fed\'s division of banking supervision and regulation, should terrify everyone who watched this program. \<a href=&quot;http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/fed-names-economist-as-top-bank-regulator/&quot;\>http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/fed-names-economist-as-top-bank-regulator/\<\/a\>Don\'t miss the 2nd comment, if you\'d like to have your hair stand on end. ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 01:02"},{"nm":"Paul Emus","rs":"0","ms":"We are a couple hundred years overdue for a revolution.","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 00:26"},{"nm":"Lawrence Lewis","rs":"0","ms":"Thank you for this very telling investigative story.  I only wish it was broadcast on prime time on the major broadcast networks so many millions of Americans could have the benifit of seeing it.  I am saddened that the Obama Administration has chosen to appoint key financial figures that were major players in the financial collapse of our economy.  ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 00:25"},{"nm":"norm dauria","rs":"0","ms":"I think that most all politicians are concerned with their re-election and because of that will go with what will work immediately for the continuance of thier popularity rather than them having the guts to do what is right for the people or the economy in the long run. If we had term limitation, which I feel will never happen, we might then get politicians that actually care to improve the country\'s social and economic conditions. As it stands we get politicians that are statisticians working the polls to their best advantage. It really shouldn\'t surprise anyone that this country is in the condition that it is in. A large segment ot the citizens of this country, including the politicians, have been conditioned to accept greed as if it is a good thing and the goal is all about who has the most money and the most expensive material. We are a society that has become lost in our search for happiness and have lost our direction in our attempt towards getting it. Really none of the politician\'s tactics that have seriously hurt our economy and consequently our citizens should surprise any us. What should be examined by all of us is that we have lost touch with reality and have become unrealistic dreamers. Hopefully we and the politicians will wake up before it is too late to make the huge needed corrections.All of the people that believe that unfettered deregulation is a good thing should now realize, after seeing and experiencing the melt down, that certain safe guards are necessary.While I agree that the perpetrators of the mess that we are now facing should be liable for their actions but only in our dreams will this happen.    ","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 00:09"},{"nm":"Mitch DeFelice","rs":"0","ms":"What concerns me the most is Brooksley Born offering another warning that our financial system is still exposed to the same risks that caused our credit markets to come to freeze and put us into a recession that we haven\'t seen for 28 years.Albert Einstein once was quoted as saying &quot;Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results&quot;If Brooksley is correct then I truly believe America can no longer able to be a financial leader in the world.  Maybe we need to vote with our feet and start buying Euros!!!","pt":"Oct 21, 2009 00:04"},{"nm":"Patrick Smyth","rs":"0","ms":"I think the American way of governing is suspect.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:39"},{"nm":"Steve Maiorano","rs":"0","ms":"&quot;To-big-to-fail-ego\'s&quot;... that\'s what I see on Wall Street and in Congress. Bring transparency to all people of power. Thank goodness for PBS.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:35"},{"nm":"Allan Brodie","rs":"0","ms":"Ayn Rand\'s philosophy was very prevalent in the years of the Reagan administration. Her philosophy influenced a lot of B-school graduates so that the majority of people who were and are in the management of financial and commercial enterprises in the last 25 years had the attitude that government only interfered with business efficiency. For somebody to try as Brooksley did to speak up against the high priests of finance and economics was like Galileo or Cupernicus saying the world was round when the Pope said it was flat way back when.Still our society will only prosper for everyone with dedicated public servants like Brooksley Borne in positiions to check powerful forces. Without dedicated regulators, powerful forces develop and foster their own interests which may jeopardize the safety and well being of many others. Sadly, even though Obama pointed out the ever lobbying lobbysts in Washington DC as a problem, we see in this Frontline program that Obama has had to rely on some of the very people who caused the crisis for economic policies. I am afraid that this is just another example of how the special interests really run our country.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:33"},{"nm":"Bob Meixner","rs":"0","ms":"The derivatives market should have been regulated after the LTCM debacle in 1998. Derivatives were all over the news then, and it was obvious that fund managers who controlled huge amounts of money were invested in them without having any idea what they were doing. I remember Orange County, CA almost tanking as a  result. I\'m really surprised that nothing was done then, but flabbergasted that there\'s even a debate about it now. Just do it.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:26"},{"nm":"Phil","rs":"0","ms":"I too am totally upset by the lack of non prosecution of the &quot;ring knockers&quot;! Brooksley Born, I am sure, is not taking pride in saying, &quot;I told you so&quot;, but is saddened by realizing what could have taken place had they heeded the word of a woman!  What is even more unbelievable is that the people that did not heed her words at the proper time are now in power to do the same thing uninhibited by legislation because of the lobyist of the financial world.  I concur with the comments of Katie and John, prosecute them all for the sake of our children.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:25"},{"nm":"Jo","rs":"0","ms":"First, I\'d like to commend Frontline for being the most informative, unbiased series on television your program has enlightened me on a lot different subjects, thank you As for The Warning I\'m not surprise the greed in this country outweigh rational thinking Ms. Born  was indeed the only one thinking about how this would effect the american public while Greenspan, Rubin and Summers were thinking about lining pockets , to think that something like derivatives exist and we as a public have no knowledge of this is atounding. This is a very scary thing that derivatives still exist and that even though we had the big collapse last year deregulation is still encouraged. To think that Mr. Levitt and even Greenspan did come around as Ms. Born stated there\'s still the danger of another economic downturn I hope maybe this time people will indeed listen to the warning.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:22"},{"nm":"Jason Comely","rs":"0","ms":"I love how Frontline ties everything together in a very smooth narrative, from the Reagan administration to now, to reveal how all these seemingly separate and unrelated events are actually the foreshadowing of an imminent total economic meltdown. Chilling and important viewing.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:08"},{"nm":"Richard Lancaster","rs":"0","ms":"Frontline is the one program that I trust 100%.  Your stories have been groundbreaking and provide one of the best public services.Mr. Summers and Mr. Geithner should step down. Mr. Rubin has his share of the problem with CitiGroup.  Mr. Greenspan would keep in thoughts to himself. By the way, they should reimburse us for the cost of this problem they failed to see but so capably defended the very institutions they swore would prevent this from happening.Ms. Born should be called on to step forward and lead the regulatory effort.  She seems to be the only honest one on the scene.It puzzles me that these same voices continue to have an active part in trying to now regulate and correct the problems they failed to see in the first place.  I seriously question their capacity as well as their capability to make any serious corrective contributions to our economic progress.  I understand the nature of their experience, education, past success and standing in government.  That not withstanding, I would strongly suggest that their removal from office and that Ms. Born be called to serve in an appropriate capacity in the Administration.  Clearly, she is more qualified and independent of the financial institutions that seem to have the ear, both then and now, of these current trusted advisers.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 23:01"},{"nm":"Richard Coleman","rs":"0","ms":"A well done program magnifying the problems that are still in the financial markets. It is time for the pendelum to swing further the other way back towards more regulation that rings more true to the days of Roosevelt.We may have to swallow that bitter pill of further regulation because we cannot trust the world to individuals today who have the attitude of &quot;what\'s in it for me&quot;.  It is much different today than it was in the 30\'s and 40\'s in that there is so much more information that can be accessed and temptation to take advantage of a situation. I think the moral compass of the country is very out of whack.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 22:49"},{"nm":"Raj","rs":"0","ms":"Financial weapons of mass destruction!!Buffett 2007","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 22:41"},{"nm":"Katie Huebner","rs":"0","ms":"I agree with Mr. Vanderzon. Why isn\'t Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and Levitz being made to be accountable to me they are no different that Madoff. Is it because of the elitists of our society? or Is because good men do nothing?","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 22:21"},{"nm":"norbert jay","rs":"0","ms":"A great presentation.I would like to see a derivative in action...the terms, the price paid to the maker and the motive for the buyer and the seller.  Have not found this anywhere.\\\\// norbert","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 22:19"},{"nm":"Tom Mueller","rs":"0","ms":"Neo-Keynesian theory is null and void during our current economic implosion just as Newton’s laws of physics no longer apply when approaching the event horizon of a black hole.  Simply put; governments cannot print enough money to solve the problem.  There are currently over $600-trillion-plus worth of derivative swap and securitization products floating in financial purgatory while the total gross domestic product for the G7 is barely $40-trillion and the world\'s GDP is less than $70-trillion.   Meanwhile, the Fed, FDIC and the Treasury have only this year added 7.5 trillion in liabilities to their balance sheets. That\'s more than 50% of the current US GDP – and we haven’t even begun to tally up the cost of Obama’s promised largesse which will eventually generate a total of over 1 million dollars of federal fiscal debt per US household.  The Fed could become the third US central bank in history to go bankrupt before this sad story ends in tears.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 22:17"},{"nm":"MikeSar","rs":"0","ms":"It is amazing! How could all those powerful government people be so blind and dumb! They did not hear what Ms Born told them and the world, that\'s right, the entife World Economy went down the drain.Are we so sure we are so wise and powerful we will not repeat the same?How many people know that the only changes made are mostly cosmetic!!The same think could happen again AND IT WILL BE LEGAL!! Got it!","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 22:13"},{"nm":"John Vanderzon","rs":"0","ms":"I find this story horrific; the pain that Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and Levitz caused and are causing to so many people suffering.Why aren\'t they in jail; they have directly impacted the lives or rather crushed the lives of millions of people.I am glad Frontline has brought this to the fore front; however, I would prefer to see those 4 in jail for these heinous crimes.","pt":"Oct 20, 2009 21:15"}]}); });