Too Big to Fail - Crisis Communication Amid Financial Turmoil
Michele Davis:
I hate to do this right now, but I'm going to have to have a press call first thing, and I really don't know what I'm going to tell them.
Neel Kashkari:
Tell them Lehman exacerbated AIG. The simultaneous payouts of CDOs and credit default swaps put catastrophic pressure...
Henry Paulson:
Go back further.
Neel Kashkari:
The global pool of investment capital...
Henry Paulson:
She has to do this in English! Start with the homeowners.
Jim Wilkinson: [clears throat; [w:mortgage-backed securities|mortgage-backed securities]
Okay, okay, here's how you explain it. Wall Street started bundling home loans together - ] - and selling slices of those bundles to investors, and they were making big money. So they started pushing the lenders saying, "come on, we need more loans.
Henry Paulson:
The lenders had already given loans to borrowers with good credit, so they go bottom-feeding, they lower their criteria.
Neel Kashkari:
Before, you needed a credit score of 620 and a down payment of 20%; now they'll settle for 500, no money down.
Jim Wilkinson:
And the buyer, the regular guy on the street assumes that the experts know what they're doing. He's saying to himself, "if the bank's willing to loan me money, I must be able to afford it." So he reaches for the American Dream, he buys that house.
Neel Kashkari:
The banks knew securities based on shitbag mortgages were risky...
Henry Paulson:
You'll work on "shitbag"...
Neel Kashkari: [[w:Credit default swap|Default swap]
...So to control their downside, the banks started buying a kind of insurance. If mortgages default, insurance company pays. ]. The banks insure their potential losses to move the risk off their books, so they can invest more, make more money.
Henry Paulson:
And while a lot of companies insured their stuff, one was dumb enough to take on an almost unbelievable amount of risk.
Michele Davis:
AIG.
Jim Wilkinson:
And you'll work on "dumb.
Michele Davis:
And when they ask me why they did that?
Jim Wilkinson:
Fees!
Neel Kashkari:
Hundreds of millions in fees.
Henry Paulson:
AIG figures the housing market would just keep going up. But then the unexpected happens...
Jim Wilkinson: [[w:Subprime mortgage crisis|Housing prices go down]
].
Neel Kashkari:
The poor bastard who bought his dream house? The teaser rate on his mortgage runs out, his payments go up, he defaults.
Henry Paulson:
Mortgage-backed securities tank. AIG has to pay off the swaps. All of them. All over the world. At the same time.
Neel Kashkari:
AIG can't pay. AIG goes under. Every bank they insure books massive losses on the same day. And then they all go under. It all comes down.
Michele Davis: [horrified; Wilkinson nods]
The whole financial system? And what do I say when they ask me why it wasn't regulated?
Henry Paulson:
No one wanted to. We were making too much money.
Jim Wilkinson:
You'll work on, "we were making too much money.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Too Big to Fail - Economic Crisis and Political Dynamics Unfold
Jim Wilkinson: [[John McCain]
(watching Paulson's conversation with ]) He's not... threatening the Republican Presidential nominee, is he?
Nancy Pelosi:
(when Paulson kneels down in front of her) Hank, I didn't know you were Catholic.
Michele Davis:
They almost bring down the U.S. economy as we know it, but we can't put restrictions on how they spend the $125 billion we're giving them because... they might not take it?
Timothy Geithner:
I'm on the Street, Hank, and people are just going about their business. They have no idea the whole thing is about to fall down.
Congressman Barney Frank:
(reviewing the first draft of TARP) It's all for the banks. You don't want a penny for the average Joe that's about to lose his house?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Baby's Day Out - A Lost Book Sparks a Child's Adventure
Bennington:
You had quite an adventure today.
Baby Bink:
Boo boo.
Bennington:
Boo boo?
Gilbertine:
It's what he calls his book. He lost it today.
Laraine:
We'll get you another one, sweetheart.
Baby Bink:
Boo boo!
Laraine:
What? Oh, I see. That's nice.
Baby Bink:
Boo boo.
Laraine:
That's not a boo boo. That's a clock. A ticktock. Was there a ticktock in his book?
Gilbertine:
No. Well, he's pointing to...His boo boo, he's not pointing at the ticktock, he's pointing to his boo boo, he wants his boo boo.
Grissom:
I thought he was getting a new boo boo.
Laraine:
He means his boo boo's back there, that's where he's been.
Grissom:
Radio Rogers and McCloskey, tell them we're going to the ticktock to get the boo boo, and send for backup.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Baby's Day Out - Investigation of Missing Baby Leads to Clues
Agent Dale Grissom:
We got some news. I don't know if it's good, but it's not bad. Since the media broke the story, calls have come in. There was a report of a man looking for a baby on a bus this morning. A baby missing from a department store care center. Another, at three o'clock, at the zoo. Shortly after that, at a downtown park. And a final report not long ago at...
Gilbertine: [realizing]
A building under construction.
Agent Dale Grissom: [surprised]
Yeah, that's right.
Gilbertine:
He's doing everything in the book. I know where he is. "Before returning home for supper, Nanny and Baby Boo stopped at the Old Soldiers Home to visit Mr. Tinsel." That's where he is.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Baby's Day Out - Exploring Options Beyond Familiar Stories
Gilbertine: [She stops reading and sighs heavily]
You will see the many, many sights of the big city. Couldn't we read another book? We've read this one a hundred times.
Bink: [That's what he called his favorite book]
Boo-boo! Boo-boo!
Gilbertine:
You have so many other books.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.