We use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience. If you continue to use our site, you agree to the use of such cookies. For more info, see our privacy policy.
Skip to main content

Hi. We love you. Be our Life Partner.

Support the show to get ad-free listening, bonus content, and our new Greatest Hits Archive.

Learn more
This American Life Partners logo
00:00
00:00
  • Transcript
  • Share
This American Life
  • Life Partners
  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Follow Us
  • Life Partners
382
June 5, 2009

The Watchmen

Since Congress hasn't held 1930's-style hearings into the causes of the financial crisis, we stage one of our own. The subject? The regulators and watchdogs who were supposed to be overseeing the banks and the finance industry—to make sure things wouldn't blow up like they have. Clearly something went wrong. Today we pound a gavel and ask: Where were the watchmen?

  • Download
    Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
  • Transcript

Mark B. Schlemmer

This show is a co-production with NPR News, part of our Planet Money project.

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks with Michael Perrino, a law professor at St Johns University School of Law in New York, who wrote a book about Ferdinand Pecora called The Hellhound of Wall Street. Pecora was the lead attorney in the Senate Banking Committee hearings in the 1930s looking into wrongdoing in the banking industry. When he got the job, he turned the hearings from an unimportant and not terrible useful exercise into a real investigation into Wall Street and the causes of the 1929 stock market collapse. It spurred Congress to pass landmark reforms regulating Wall Street. Ira and Perrino talk about whether these kinds of hearings could or should happen today. (9 minutes)

By

Ira Glass
Act One

Investigation Report #1

Planet Money reporter Chana Joffe-Walt asks a simple question: Who was the federal regulator who was supposed to be regulating AIG? The answer turns out to be far from simple. (21 minutes)

By

Chana Joffe-Walt
Planet Money
Act Two

Investigation Report #2

Alex Blumberg and NPR correspondent (and "Planet Money" reporter) Dave Kestenbaum examine what went wrong with the credit ratings agencies. When all these financial instruments that brought down our economy—the mortgage backed securities, the derivatives—were originally issued, the rating agencies (Standard and Poors, Moody's and Fitch) gave many of these things their top rating of triple-A. Because of the great ratings, trillions were invested. And then the ratings turned out to be wrong. What happened? (25 minutes)

By

Alex Blumberg
David Kestenbaum
Planet Money

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
296: After the Flood
Sept. 9, 2005

Act Three: Social Studies Lesson

We compare Fox TV talk show host Bill O'Reilly's ideas about the hurricane's aftermath with those of Ashley Nelson, an 18-year-old who lives in the Lafitte Housing projects in New Orleans, in one of the flooded neighborhoods.
272: Big Tent
Sept. 10, 2004

Act Three: Indecent Proposal

Mike is a Democrat, the yellow dog kind.
168: The Fix Is In
Sept. 15, 2000

Act Two

Our story about ADM and Mark Whitacre continues.

Staff Recommendations

View all
354
Apr. 18, 2008

Mistakes Were Made

Freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it sounds.

449
Oct. 28, 2011

Middle School

Stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school.

This American Life

This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Contact
  • Life Partners
  • Serial
  • S-Town
© 1995 - 2025 This American Life Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Subscribe

  • on Spotify
  • in Apple Podcasts

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email