The PBS documentary Frontline, Money, Power, and Wall Street gives audiences a little history on the causes of the Great Recession. At the forefront are some of the most important personalities of Giorogs Papakonstaniou, the former Greek finance minister; Sheila Biar, chair of the FDIC during the crisis, and Robert Wolf, presidents of UBS Americans, to name a few. The 2008 crisis not only made approximately 8.5 million Americans unemployed, but also caused a loss of net worth of approximately $11 trillion. On top of that, the nation was divided by radical left-wing and right-wing movements like Occupy Wall St. and the Tea Party that formed in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Some might say this was just the result of capitalism and not enough government regulation on Wall Street. Many of the "elite" financial figures could not give a definitive answer as to why this crisis occurred, as many of the people interviewed said: "We don't know how it happened." Many young brokers working for JP Morgan in the mid-1990s believed they could find a way to reduce risk with credit derivatives. Credit derivatives are just a way to use other methods to separate and transfer risk to someone other than the seller and free up capital. They tested their experiment with Exxon Mobile who was facing millions of dollars in damages from the 1989 Valdez oil spill by extending their credit line. This also gave rise to credit default swaps (CDS) where a company wants to borrow money from someone who will buy its bonds and repay the buyer with interest over time. Once the JP Morgan and Exxon Mobile credit default swap occurred, others followed their path and CDS began to thrive throughout the 1990s. The problem was that a lot of the banks... middle of paper... here weren't that big but still got a lot of media attention. The protesters also questioned why many lost their jobs and wanted the government to reform the banks. Police also received attention for their treatment of protesters, many of whom were hit with pepper spray and brutally assaulted. An important term, trust, was very important during this time. Because as soon as Lehman Brothers collapsed, many banks and brokers also began to lose confidence because they were worried about who would fall and how much money they would lose from their investments with Lehman. Then, when it came to fixing Wall Street, Obama chose Geithner because he was already popular on Wall Street and if he had chosen anyone else, trust would have collapsed. This confidence also helps consumers spend their money to keep the economy going.