financial meltdown. possibly wrong info though..
PBS (frontline)
Kirk Documentary Group
Breaking the Bank
Inside the Meltdown On June 19th, 2009, the housing bubble in the United States of America "bursted". Because of this downfall, people began spending less and the banks were in emidiate trouble. The first signs that the banks were failing was that they stopped lending money, and froze credit cards. The secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson, was on a mission to change the downfall most banks of America were going through. Next on his hit list, was Meryll Lynch. A mistake he would later regret.
On October 12, 2009, Paulson called the heads of banks around America to a meeting at the treasury the next day. He had decided that all of the banks must be owned by the government, and would not take no for an answer. As a bribe of sort, he used 125 billion dollars to persuade banks into agreeing to sign papers to join the government.
Two banks at this meeting, Meryll Lynch and Bank of America, were possibly to be joined together. Meryll Lynch was losing money, over 15 billion dollars; but Bank of America didn't care. Even though this could break their bank, Kenneth Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, wanted to have Meryll Lynch join his bank.
To try to fix the problem of banks failing, Bernacky, Paulson, and Lewis met up to converse about the possibility of Bank of America buying out Meryll Lynch. Lewis was given 20 billion dollars and Meryll Lynch as a while was given 8 billion to join each other. After joining together, the following January, Bank of America dropped 40%.
Because of Kenneth Lewis' decision, Bank of America was slowly being destroyed. But he did not want to take the blame, so he put it on the CEO of Meryll Lynch, John Thain. With the downfall of one of the biggest banks in America failing, many people started to believe any and every business no matter how big could fail. With this thought, the banks customers were worried about there money being taken or lost, pulling it out,
Kirk Documentary Group
Breaking the Bank
Inside the Meltdown On June 19th, 2009, the housing bubble in the United States of America "bursted". Because of this downfall, people began spending less and the banks were in emidiate trouble. The first signs that the banks were failing was that they stopped lending money, and froze credit cards. The secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson, was on a mission to change the downfall most banks of America were going through. Next on his hit list, was Meryll Lynch. A mistake he would later regret.
On October 12, 2009, Paulson called the heads of banks around America to a meeting at the treasury the next day. He had decided that all of the banks must be owned by the government, and would not take no for an answer. As a bribe of sort, he used 125 billion dollars to persuade banks into agreeing to sign papers to join the government.
Two banks at this meeting, Meryll Lynch and Bank of America, were possibly to be joined together. Meryll Lynch was losing money, over 15 billion dollars; but Bank of America didn't care. Even though this could break their bank, Kenneth Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, wanted to have Meryll Lynch join his bank.
To try to fix the problem of banks failing, Bernacky, Paulson, and Lewis met up to converse about the possibility of Bank of America buying out Meryll Lynch. Lewis was given 20 billion dollars and Meryll Lynch as a while was given 8 billion to join each other. After joining together, the following January, Bank of America dropped 40%.
Because of Kenneth Lewis' decision, Bank of America was slowly being destroyed. But he did not want to take the blame, so he put it on the CEO of Meryll Lynch, John Thain. With the downfall of one of the biggest banks in America failing, many people started to believe any and every business no matter how big could fail. With this thought, the banks customers were worried about there money being taken or lost, pulling it out,