Frontline

Breaking The Bank

The bets were huge and risky -- billions of dollars on the housing market. The upside was undeniable -- superbanks reaped billions of dollars, dominated the landscape and gobbled up competitors. Then the bottom dropped out -- the massive losses on Wall Street nearly broke the banks. In the worst crisis in decades, brand name banks are on the brink of failure. Now as the federal government contemplates what could become a massive nationalization of the industry, FRONTLINE goes behind closed doors to tell the inside story of how things went so wrong so fast and to document efforts to stabilize the industry. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk ("Inside the Meltdown") untangles the complicated financial and political web threatening one particular superbank -- Bank of America.