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

With unrivalled contributions from the key decision makers including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and five other finance ministers, the program pieces together the details of an extraordinary moment in history when the world faced its greatest financial crisis.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers sent the world into a tail spin, leaving the authorities unsure how to react. Should they let "market forces" play out or should they intervene and if so, how? The decisions made in those few days will have consequences for the world for decades to come. Even today, few realize how close we all came to a truly catastrophic collapse of the very foundation of the modern world.

First with access to many of the key power brokers, the program takes the viewer inside the corridors of power in Washington DC as the first attempt to stabilize the economy, known as the TARP Plan, was proposed, rejected and adapted.

Then the drama switches to London and on to mainland Europe as the plan to pump billions of taxpayers' pounds into failed assets was formed. Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, European Finance Ministers and for the first time, the behind-the-scenes officials, tell of the ups and downs of a month in which they held the fate of the world in their hands. Finally, a plan to inject an estimated $3 trillion into the world's failed financial system was adopted around the world.

THE LOVE OF MONEY also asks: Who will pay for it all? Have we left future generations with an unmanageable debt? Did we have any choice?

Now is the right time to take a step back and ask what we have learned and, more importantly, will it happen again? With contributions from Alan Greenspan former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, and others, the program provides a crucial and unmissable addition to the debate.

Contributors include:
Gordon Brown MP, UK Prime Minister
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil
Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary
Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, US House of Representatives
Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Neel Kashkari, former Assistant Secretary, US Treasury
David Soanes, UBS
John Varley, CEO, Barclays
John Thain, former CEO, Merrill Lynch
Eddie Lazear, former Chair, Council of Economic Advisors, The White House
Alistair Darling MP, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer
Peer Steinbruck, German Federal Minister of Finance
Christine Lagarde, French Minister of Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment
Brian Lenihan, Irish Minister for Finance
Mervyn King, Governor, Bank of England
John Geive, Bank of England
Hector Sants, FSA
Baroness Shriti Vadera, UK Downing Street adviser at the time of the crisis

The other programs in the series are:

1. The Bank that Bust the World - The first film in the BBC series, THE LOVE OF MONEY, examines what happened in September 2008 when the collapse of Lehman Brothers plunged the world into financial crisis.

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.



Grade Level: 10 - 12, College, Adults
US Release Date: 2010     Copyright Date: 2009
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-937-2

Reviews "What happens when banks lose confidence in banks? According to Back from the Brink, when this happened, credit virtually dried up with the result that the entire global economy was close to a complete shutdown. How this was averted is the principal focus of this film. It provides an excellent analysis of the key issues with assessments from major political leaders provides one with a compelling narrative of the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers." Ian Taplin, Professor of Sociology, Management and International Studies, Wake Forest University "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 "[Back From the Brink] present[s] an interesting alternative to the usual financial crisis documentary fare and could be a useful counter point to the US centric stories presented in so many other accounts." Vance Gieger, University of Central Florida, Anthropology Review Database "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