"Engrossing...immensely well-informed overview of the global crash." David Chater, The (London) Times

With the world reeling from the credit crunch, US Authorities summoned Wall Street bosses to an emergency meeting at the New York Federal Reserve. Over one extraordinary weekend, these so-called "masters of the universe" argued about what should be done to save the ailing 158-year-old investment bank.

A series of catastrophic investments in property and the exposure of its sub-prime liabilities had left the bank debt-ridden and with few creditors.

British bank Barclays saw an opportunity to buy the stricken bank. The program hears from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Chancellor Alistair Darling, and Chairman of Barclays Bob Diamond, as fevered transatlantic negotiations went on through the night. It also examines the claim it was the British Government that, in the end, blocked Barclays' takeover.

The program includes never-before-seen footage shot inside Lehman's in the weeks leading up to the demise of the bank. It shows Lehman's boss, Dick Fuld, struggling to keep his empire going as the sharks begin to circle. Weaving together personal testimony and analysis, the program delivers a portrait of a man and an institution under intolerable pressure.

Finally, when all other avenues had been exhausted, the bank filed for bankruptcy amid emotional scenes as employees saw their lives, reputations and livelihoods shredded in the biggest bankruptcy of modern times.

Contributors include:
Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary
Gordon Brown MP, UK Prime Minister
Alistair Darling MP, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer
Harvey Miller, Lehman Bankruptcy Attorney
Rodgin Cohen, Counsel, Lehman Brothers
Bob Diamond, President, Barclays
John Thain, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Merrill Lynch
John Varley, CEO, Barclays
Neel Kashkari, Ex-Assistant Secretary, US Treasury
Hector Sants, CEO, UK Financial Services Authority
Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil
Tony Lomas, Partner, Price Waterhouse Coopers (Administrator for Lehman UK)
Anthony Fry, Head of Investment Banking, Lehman Europe 2004-07
Andrew Gowers, Head of Corporate Communications, Lehman Brothers 2006-08
Larry McDonald, Lehman Brothers, 2004-08
Barry Gould, MD, Fixed Income Technology, Lehman Brothers 1996-2008
Susanne Craig, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
David Faber, Correspondent, CNBC
Cindy Swabsain, Assistant Vice President, Corporate Events Lehman Brothers 1988-2008

The other programs in the series are:

2. The Age of Risk - The second film in the BBC series, THE LOVE OF MONEY, examines the boom years before the global financial crash of 2008.

3. Back from the Brink - The third film in the BBC series, THE LOVE OF MONEY, examines the background to the decision to bail out the banks in 2008.



Grade Level: 10 - 12, College, Adults
US Release Date: 2010     Copyright Date: 2009
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-936-4

Reviews "The Bank that Bust the World should be mandatory viewing in MBA programs and in Washington. It's a brilliant exposé on how insatiable greed, unrestrained egos, and unaccountability brought down Lehman Brothers, one of the oldest investment banks in the US." Dr. Joseph A. Soares, Associate Professor of Sociology, Wake Forest University, Author, Power of Privilege: Yale and America's Elite Colleges "The most important insight [The Bank That Bust the World] provides is the fact that the British and US governments both decided that the behavior of Lehman Brothers' high level employees had gone too far." Vance Geiger, University of Central Florida, Anthropology Review Database "This positively brilliant documentary offers a sobering realization of precisely how close to the brink of disaster the world economy came...The unrelenting revelations of this film...the outright horror, shock, and outrage that are generated by this documentary series is undeniable...This series is a truly a 'must see.' The film is promoted as 'the definitive guide to the global economic meltdown.' This is no exaggeration, and is indeed a well deserved tagline." Michael Coffta, Business Librarian, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Educational Media Reviews Online "The Love of Money was a meticulous countdown to disaster, its clarity and the colossal scale of the facts and figures making it vastly more compelling than the dramatisation a few nights ago... the story unfolded largely in the words of those who were there, with the occasional addition from the narrator to make sure we were following through the still relatively unfamiliar terrain of shrunken multi-billion portfolios, balance sheets, liquidity guarantees and the horrors revealed wherever potential investors and their due diligence teams trod." Lucy Mangan, The Guardian "A vivid, fascinating account of the crisis...Those directly involved recall the frenzied, round-the-clock attempts to save the firm [Lehmans], amid `the smell of pizza and unwashed bodies'." Daily Mail "Over the last three weeks we have been treated to the sight of what it [the BBC] undeniably does best: making serious documentaries about events of great public importance...The programme-makers did an excellent job. Apart from lining up many of the major players in the world's economic near-collapse...it explained both what had happened and the consequences if the banks had been allowed to fold...For all the cold-blooded analysis, you didn't hear many...participants admitting the whole mess had been partly of their own making, and nor were you satisfied it couldn't happen all over again...There was also some telling insight into the impact on the relationships between countries, with Britain, Ireland and France all throwing barbed remarks." Virginia Blackburn, Daily Express