Hank

If you are looking for something to watch this weekend, the documentary Hank: Five Years from the Brink is now available on Netflix and Amazon. The film tells the story of the 2008 financial crisis from the perspective of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. During the most dangerous days of the crisis, he played a crucial role in persuading Congress to authorize a $700 billion bank bailout, the biggest in American history. The October 2008 bailout averted a 1930s-style run on the banks and likely prevented another Great Depression. Ironically, however, Paulson inadvertently helped trigger the crisis in the first place. In early September 2008, as years of reckless mortgage lending gave rise to a rapidly spreading financial meltdown, Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke refused to save the foundering investment banking firm Lehman Brothers. The decision was a grave mistake. Days later it became clear that Lehman’s bankruptcy threatened the solvency of…

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