Behind the Bank Failures
The FRONTLINE Dispatch
GBH
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the aftermath of the second and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history, correspondent James Jacoby joins the FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about Age of Easy Money, a documentary examining the power of the Federal Reserve and our current economic uncertainty.
The film draws on over two years of reporting on the Fed’s so-called “easy money” policies, with Jaocby and team charting the start of the Fed’s economic experiment after the 2008 financial crisis and again during COVID; the Fed’s decision to start raising interest rates in 2022; and what’s happened since — including recession fears, bank market disruptions, and concerns that the fight against inflation will trigger unemployment.
“In some ways there's been this kind of gravitational force at work, this invisible force, and people weren't able to necessarily recognize it,” Jacoby told host Raney Aronson-Rath. “At the root of it is what the Fed has been doing.”
Age of Easy Money is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video App, and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In recent weeks we've seen some of the largest bank failures in US history, |
| 0:07.0 | prompting the Federal Reserve to take emergency measures to shore up the system. |
| 0:11.0 | Federal Reserve Treasury and FDIC stepping in overnight, hoping to curb panic. |
| 0:16.6 | Americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe. |
| 0:20.7 | Frontline's new documentary, Age of Easy Money, investigates the power of the |
| 0:25.2 | Fed. The financial system has been built around extremely low, ultra-low interest |
| 0:30.8 | rates for 10 years. And its impact on the U.S. economy. |
| 0:34.5 | It's like choosing between your rent and your food. |
| 0:36.9 | J Powell is not messing around. |
| 0:39.6 | If we hadn't been driving our economy for 14 years |
| 0:42.4 | with easy money and then trying to |
| 0:44.1 | really quickly undo that. No, we wouldn't be having these problems now. |
| 0:47.2 | What should the Fed do? Corresponded James Jacoby joins me to talk about his |
| 0:52.0 | reporting. I'm Rain Earenson Roth, editor-in-chief and executive producer |
| 0:56.1 | Frontline, and this is the Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation committed to excellence in journalism |
| 1:10.8 | and by the Frontline Journalism Fund with major support from John and Joanne Hagler. |
| 1:16.5 | Support for Frontline Dispatch comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, |
| 1:20.5 | dedicated to providing the latest therapies and cancer specialists who are experienced in your cancer. |
| 1:25.3 | When you hear the word cancer, their team is ready. |
| 1:28.0 | Learn more at mass general.org. |
| 1:30.6 | slash cancer. |
| 1:31.5 | James, welcome to the dispatch. |
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