Frontline on PBS: Wall Street

This is a four part documentary on how Wall Street evolved into the entity that crashed the economy in 2008. Amongs other things you will hear one of the 4 or 5 twenty-somethings who came up with credit default swaps lament how their idea meant to make loans less risky turned into the death spiral that destroyed millions of jobs when it was put into the hands of individuals who didn't care what they did so long as they made a buck.

Episode: Money, Power and Wall Street: Part One
As Wall Street innovated, its revenues skyrocketed, and financial institutions of all stripes tied their fortunes to one another. FRONTLINE probes deeply into the story of the big banks -- how they developed, how they profited, and how the model that produced unfathomable wealth planted the seeds of financial destruction.

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part One on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Episode: Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Two
Beginning with the government bailout of the collapsing investment bank Bear Stearns in the spring of 2008, FRONTLINE examines how the country's leaders -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner -- struggled to respond to a financial crisis that caught them by surprise.

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Two on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Episode: Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Three
FRONTLINE goes inside the Obama White House, telling the story of how a newly elected president with a mandate for change inherited a financial crisis that would challenge his administration and define his first term. From almost the very beginning, there was a division inside the economic team over how tough the White House should be on the banks that were at the heart of the crisis.

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Three on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Episode: Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Four
FRONTLINE probes a Wall Street culture that remains focused on risky trades. Bankers left an ugly trail of deals extending from small U.S. cities to big European capitals. For more than three years, regulators have tried to fix an industry steeped in conflicts of interest, excessive risk taking, and incentives to cheat. New regulations are being written, but can they fend off the next crisis?

Watch Money, Power and Wall Street: Part Four on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.