The End of Wall Street - Video - The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal reporters and editors who covered history give an unprecedented, in-depth look at the 2008 economic collapse in this exclusive, original three-part documentary.

THE END OF WALL STREET, produced for WSJ.com by The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, explains the events that hobbled the world financial system and shook the pillars of global capitalism. You'll gain insights from the Journal's most experienced reporters and editors on why easy money led to the collapse of Wall Street's biggest financial institutions, and what was going though the minds of CEOs, corporate boards, fund managers and lenders when they created "derivatives," hard-to-understand financial instruments that Warren Buffett called "weapons of financial mass destruction."

THE END OF WALL STREET is narrated by Dave Kansas, the Journal's chief markets commentator and author of the book, "The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street As We Know It" (Harper Paperbacks). It features reporting and insights from premier WSJ journalists, including Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray; Money & Investing Editor Ken Brown; Economics Editor David Wessel; Chief Economics Correspondent Jon Hilsenrath; Money & Investing Deputy Bureau Chief Dennis Berman, among others.  

Chapter 1: What Happened - Journal reporters explain how the housing bubble inflated and burst, and how the housing market ultimately took down Wall Street's biggest financial institutions.  

Chapter 2: Why it Happened - Journal reporters and editors explain how investment banks came to sell products even their executives didn't understand, and why companies created derivatives, hard-to-understand instruments that Warren Buffett called "weapons of financial mass destruction."

Chapter 3: What Happens Next - The final chapter tells the story of the $700 billion bailout, as seen through a reporter's eyes, considers what's ahead for the world economy and why the events of 2008 were so different from past downturns.