Frontline: Breaking the Bank

FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES BANK OF AMERICA AND THE GOVERNMENT’S NEW ROLE IN THE BANKING SYSTEM

FRONTLINE Season Finale
BREAKING THE BANK
Tuesday, June 16, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS

Ken Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, is in trouble—a stock collapse; a rocky merger; the worst fourth-quarter losses in at least 17 years; a stockholder revolt; an urgent need to raise more capital despite a $45 billion infusion from the federal government; and on top of that, he effectively has a new boss, President Barack Obama.

In Breaking the Bank, airing Tuesday, June 16, 2009, on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (Inside the Meltdown, Bush’s War) draws on a rare combination of high-profile interviews with key players Ken Lewis and former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to reveal the story of two banks at the heart of the financial crisis, the rocky merger, and the government’s new role in taking over—some call it “nationalizing”—the American banking system.