Financial Network Investment » Inside

Pt. 1 America’s Bankrupt Banks (Inside the Meltdown)

wealth — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 01:04:54 +0000

On Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, the astonished leadership of the US Congress was told in a private session by the chairman of the Federal Reserve that the American economy was in grave danger of a complete meltdown within a matter of days. “There was literally a pause in that room where the oxygen left,” says Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). As the housing bubble burst and trillions of dollars’ worth of toxic mortgages began to go bad in 2007, fear spread through the massive firms that form the heart of Wall Street. By the spring of 2008, burdened by billions of dollars of bad mortgages, the investment bank Bear Stearns was the subject of rumors that it would soon fail. “Rumors are such that they can just plain put you out of business,” Bear Stearns’ former CEO Alan “Ace” Greenberg tells FRONTLINE. The company’s stock had dropped from $171 to $57 a share, and it was hours from declaring bankruptcy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acted. “It was clear that this had to be contained. There was no doubt in his mind,” says Bernanke’s colleague, economist Mark Gertler. Bernanke, a former economics professor from Princeton, specialized in studying the Great Depression. “He more than anybody else appreciated what would happen if it got out of control,” Gertler explains. To stabilize the markets, Bernanke engineered a shotgun marriage between Bear Sterns and the commercial bank JPMorgan, with a promise that the federal government would use $30 billion to cover Bear Stearns …

A look inside hedge funds

wealth — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:42:56 +0000

Hedge funds used to occupy a dark, undisturbed corner of the financial world, but over the last year theyve been thrown under the spotlight. Still, many people dont know exactly what hedge funds are, or what hedging actually means. Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch explains.

John Mack on Saving Morgan Stanley, Inside the Bunker

wealth — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:47:01 +0000

During the depths of the global financial meltdown in September 2008, John Mack faced the most critical moment of his tenure as CEO of Morgan Stanley. The investment bank was nearly out of cash, its stock price was plunging into the single digits and Treasury officials were pressuring him to sell the firm to JPMorgan Chase for a price as low as $1. During a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture, Mack offered an insiders take on his battle to preserve thousands of jobs as well as one of the best-known names on Wall Street.

Max Keiser on Inside Story – Greek Debt Crisis – (1/2)

wealth — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:52:18 +0000

maxkeiser.com This is first of two parts appearance on Inside Story talking about the Greek debt crisis. Airdate – 24 February 2010

Mortgage Fraud – Part 2 of 6 – Dateline NBC – Inside the financial fiasco….

wealth — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:03:22 +0000

Part 2