Have we learned the lessons from Lehman and could we have predicted the coming crash? Ten years ago, the crash on Wall Street took us by surprise when Lehman Brothers' bank went bankrupt. The financial crisis that followed this crash on Wall Street was like a chain reaction; a pole dancer with her five mortgages turned out to be connected to the huge gap in the Greek national budget. Is it possible to predict the coming crash? What are the lessons learned from the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Can we predict the coming crash of Wall Street by looking back to the last 10 years and take a lesson from Lehman? A new investigative financial documentary by VPRO Backlight.

Original title: Silence before the cra$h

Sometimes, it is important to look back in order to predict what we might be heading for. Ten years ago, we were taken by surprise when Lehman Brothers' investment bank went bankrupt. In the followinf months, banks needed saving. Millions of tax payers money was used. Worldwide, banks, villages, cities, and even countries went bankrupt or were hanging by a thread. Few, if any, bankers were convicted. Crypto currencies like bitcoins thrived on the growing suspicion towards banks and governments. Finally, central banks around the world set up buying asset purchasing programmes in order to create cash out of nothing. A strategy to pump money into the financial system, hoping to keep it afloat. What have we learned from this crash and its consequences?
Over a period of ten years, VPRO Backlight reported on the snowballing financial crisis. It turned out that a journalist, a former banker and an economist had predicted the 2008 credit crash and are now warning against a new crash. We pay them another visit to find out what they had seen, where many others were blind. If we look hard enough, can we see why we are now in the calm before the next crash?
With: Nomi Prins (author & ex banker Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers), Ann Petifor (Economist) and Isabella Kaminska (journalist Financial Times) with cameo's by Jim Rogers (super investor), Roger Ver (bitcoin-evangelist), Joris Luyendijk (journalist) & Yanis Varoufakis (former minister of finance Greece).

With more than 2.2 million views on the VPRO Documentary YouTube channel only, Marije Meerman publishes a new financial documentary, looking back into Wall Street, and talks with financial analysts and specialists worldwide about predicting a potentially coming crash. Marije Meerman's previous financial documentaries are also available on this channel: Quants - The alchemists of Wall Street, The Wall Street code, and Flash Crash 2010.

Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2018.
© VPRO Backlight September 2018

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Credits:
Director: Marije Meerman
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.