The Warning

First broadcast in October 2009, this "what if" account considers how the 2008 credit crisis might have been averted. In 1998, the documentary explains, the country was enjoying an expanding economy, Fed chair Alan Greenspan was being celebrated, and Wall Street was developing new derivative securities. The documentary follows Brooksley Born, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and her attempt to investigate and regulate the private derivatives market that existed without government oversight. She was vehemently opposed by Wall Street lobbyists, Greenspan, and Clinton administration treasury secretary Robert Rubin and his aide, Larry Summers. Through video excerpts of congressional testimony and interviews with Born, former SEC chair Arthur Levitt, and others, the film explains how this group tried to discredit Born and, ultimately, gained congressional legislation to prevent the CFTC from moving forward. Born resigned, and, by 2007, the derivatives market had grown to some $595 trillion before it imploded. The subplot here presents Born, a woman, dealing with powerful males aligned against her. A sobering account, essential to grasping how the derivatives market was largely unregulated before the 2008 credit crisis.—Lawrence R. Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA