Throng

7:10pm Wednesday, November 11 on TVNZ 7

Plain Old Greed lays bare the background to America's financial collapse.

Sandra Rolon is one of the hundreds of thousands who bought a house she couldn't afford.

"They gave me a nice deal. 100% financing, 0% down payment and I went for it."

She used to live in a friend's basement with her baby and the temptation of easy credit was too strong.

"I told them I can't afford this mortgage, but they made it so easy for me. It was like that nice red apple. I had to have it," says Rolon.

Now she feels conned. Millions like Rolon were led to believe that they could create wealth. Easy credit was like a drug.

Who is responsible? How exactly did it happen? Banks made borrowing ridiculously easy in order to stack up the mortgages on their books, and were aware that most borrowers wouldn't be able to pay them back.

In this topsy turvy world loans turned into assets. The banks then sold them to offshore companies who transformed them into investment packages, which were eventually on-sold again through Wall Street. This made huge profit for the investment houses but they may as well have been selling air.

Investigating the US financial meltdown, this documentary reveals the ruined lives, crooked banks and the stupidity that brought it all about. What was happening was obvious but Wall Street couldn't stop itself. It's burningly relevant and as you watch it, the current crisis begins to make horrible sense.