The Crash - The Age of Risk

This series on the global crash examines the boom years before the bust of 2008.

It features testimony from many of the key decision makers who shaped our lives over the last two decades, including British prime minister Gordon Brown, governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, and an exclusive interview with former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, it charts how the financial bubble grew and grew.

Programme Two explains how we changed our attitude to risk, learnt to live with debt and, above all, how governments stepped back from regulating any of it.

At the heart of the story is Alan Greenspan, who for 20 years was one of the most powerful people in the world.

In October 2008, weeks after the catastrophic collapse of Lehman Brothers, the man whose ideas influenced the world admitted he might have been 'partially' wrong.

First broadcast on BBC World Service 28 September 2009. It was originally a television programme made by the BBC in association with ZDF, distributed by BBC Worldwide.