Revealing little-known history behind the financial meltdown of 2008, Frontline artfully tells the story of Brooksley Born, who as head of an obscure but powerful regulatory agency under the Clinton Administration tried unsuccessfully to lobby Congress for oversight of the secretive, unregulated derivatives market before it could (and would) collapse. Pushback came from the Treasury Department and especially Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, who effectively went to war to shut her down, even as events bolstering her argument unfolded around the world. Commentary by journalists, participants, economists, and Born herself describes the struggle and asks whether the financial powers who had dismissed Born's warning have at all learned from her efforts. Advanced students. Closed captioned. Color. 56 minutes. PBS. ©2009.
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