Frontline has done some stories lately on the financial industry, reaol estate, and our national debt issue, that I think deserve attention.
Two of the stories were directly about the financial crash. The first, "Meltdown", was in much greater depth, but was missing a lot of information, and also featured a moderately leftish stance (and basically focused the blame on Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke):
I still recommend that you watch it though, as it has a lot of solid background. Just ignore the fact that it completely absolves Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, or for that matter any democrat, of any wrongdoing etc...
Related to that, PBS (but not Frontline) released an even more left biased special report on the housing crash, and the failures of Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it, however there is a section in the middle of "the meltdown" that addresses it somewhat:
Again, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were presented as rescuers rather than the instigators of the problem. As it happens, WGBH is in Boston, Barney Frank is a Massachusetts congressman...
And another, almost entirely uncritical of Obama personally (presenting it as the natural consequence of Bushes actions. Also it's unrepentantly and aggressively Keynesian) but still critical of the coming crisis in debt:
Since "meltdown" came out though, a lot more information has been made public about what really happened between the government, and the major banks and brokerages.
This week, they released the second of their reports directly focusing on the financial sector crash; a new report called "breaking the bank", and as someone on the inside of the business, I can verify that this is pretty much how it happened:
It's still slightly slanted, but overall I think it's a pretty fair and balanced presentation. Watch, and you'll be amazed at the actions our government took under the color of authority... or maybe you won't.
