CNBC ORIGINAL TAKES A LOOK BACK AT ONE OF THE MOST DRAMATIC PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA'S FINANCIAL MARKETS
One-Hour Documentary Reported by CNBC's David Faber Premieres on Thursday, December 10th at 9PM ET/PT
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., December 7, 2009—While it was a decade of excess—10 years of booms and billionaires—the 2000’s also brought many people to the brink of financial ruin. From the bursting of the Internet bubble, to the collapse of the housing market to Wall Street’s addiction to borrowed money… CNBC’s David Faber takes viewers inside the turbulence, the triumphs and the lessons learned.
On Thursday, December 10th at 9PM ET/PT, CNBC presents “The Bubble Decade,” a CNBC Original reported by David Faber. As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, takes a look back at one of the most dramatic periods in the history of America’s financial markets. Faber tells the story of this tumultuous era through the people who lived it: some who made millions, some who lost millions and some who did both.
The one-hour program begins with the tech bubble, its apex marked by AOL’s takeover of Time Warner. The deal signified the heights and hopes of the dot-com boom, a time when entrepreneurs with the thinnest of ideas became multi-millionaires. But, the AOL/Time Warner merger, one of the biggest and viewed as one of the worst deals in history, marked the end of the Internet boom. Faber speaks with tech analyst Jonathan Cohen, Internet pioneer Robert Levitan, who co-founded iVillage and Flooz.com, and outrageous and self-promoting Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris, who crashed and burned with his Internet content provider Pseudo.com.
Faber profiles entrepreneur John McAfee, who built his fortune during the Internet bubble, but fell victim to the greatest real estate bubble the United States has ever seen. Following the dot-com crash, millions of Americans and Wall Street turned to real estate in their quest for a new asset that would result in big returns. An era of low interest rates and a massive decline in lending standards allowed virtually anyone to get a mortgage. It was an age of easy money. But, when the credit crisis began and borrowers couldn’t pay their loans—housing prices declined and many American’s like McAfee lost millions in the housing market.
The program concludes with the burst of the credit bubble, exemplified by private equity firms awash in money and on the lookout for takeover targets. Faber takes viewers inside the private equity firm Apollo Management’s buyout of Linens N Things, which ultimately forced the company into bankruptcy, laying off 17,000 employees in the middle of one of the greatest recessions ever.
In addition, the program features two panel discussions from key players who shaped the biggest financial stories of the decade including: Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks Owner & Co-Founder of Broadcast.com; Michael Wolff, Vanity Fair Columnist & Author of “Burn Rate”; Joe Nocera, New York Times Columnist; Professor Ken Rogoff, Co-Author of “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly; and Steve Ratner, Wall Street Titan & Founder of Quadrangle Group.
Mitch Weitzner and Sanford Cannold are Executive Producers of "The Bubble Decade." Jeff Pohlman is Senior Producer, Jim Conner is Producer and Samantha Wright is Coordinating Producer. Ray Borelli is the Vice President of Strategic Research, Scheduling and Long Form Programming.
“The Bubble Decade” will re-air on Sunday, December 13th at 10PM ET.
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