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On September 18th, 2008,
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the secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, and the
chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke,
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arrived for an emergency meeting at the Capitol.
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On Thursday, late afternoon,
they go to Nancy Pelosi's office
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and there's a meeting of the senior legislators
from both parties in both House and Senate.
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In the past seven months, they had bailed out
one bank and let another one fail,
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nationalized three of the nation's largest companies,
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and watched in horror as the credit markets froze.
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It was obviously a big meeting. I had no idea
I was going to hear what I heard.
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We turned it right over to
Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson.
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And they said they needed the authority to use
$700 billion dollars to, ah, unstop the credit markets.
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Sitting in that room with Hank Paulson saying to us
in very measured tones, no hyperbole,
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no excessive adjectives,
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that, "Unless you act, the financial system of this country
and the world will melt down in a matter of days. "
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Bernanke said, "If we don't do this tomorrow,
we won't have an economy on Monday."
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There was literally a pause in that room
where the oxygen left.
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Tonight, from the boardrooms on Wall Street
to the back rooms in Washington,
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FRONTLINE goes Inside the Meltdown.
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"We learned today home foreclosures
...
