Too Big to Fail (film) Quotes

Too Big to Fail is a television program that debuted in 2011 on HBO Films. Too Big to Fail ended its run in 1970.

It features Ezra Swerdlow as producer, Marcelo Zarvos as theme composer, and Kramer Morgenthau as head of cinematography.

Too Big to Fail is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of Too Big to Fail is 98 minutes long. Too Big to Fail is produced by Deuce Three Productions.

The cast includes: Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke, James Woods as Richard Fuld, John Heard as Joe Gregory, Amy Carlson as Erin Callan, Evan Handler as Lloyd Blankfein's Assistant, Evan Handler as Lloyd Blankfein, William Hurt as Henry Paulson, Topher Grace as Jim Wilkinson, Tony Shalhoub as John Mack, Cynthia Nixon as Michele Davis, and Ayad Akhtar as Neel Kashkari.

Too Big to Fail Quotes

Cynthia Nixon as Michele Davis

• (Cynthia Nixon) "I hate to do this right now, but I'm going to have to have a press call first thing, and I don't know what I'm going to tell them."
• (Topher Grace) "Okay, here's how you explain it. Wall Street started bundling home loans together; mortgage-backed securities; and selling slices of those bundles to investors, and they were making big money. So they started pushing the lenders saying, come on, we need more loans."
• (William Hurt) "The lenders had already given loans to borrowers with good credit, so they go bottom feeding, they lower their criteria."
• (Ayad Akhtar) "Before, you needed a credit score of 620 and a down payment of 20%; now they'll settle for 500, no money down."
• (Topher Grace) "And the buyer, the regular guy on the street assumes that the experts know what they're doing. He's saying to himself, if the bank's willing to loan me money, I must be able to afford it. So he reaches for the American Dream, he buys that house."
• (Ayad Akhtar) "The banks knew securities based on s***bag mortgages were risky --"
• (William Hurt) "you'll work on 's***bag' --"
• (Ayad Akhtar) "so to control their downside, the banks started buying a kind of insurance. If mortgages default, insurance company pays. Default swap. The banks insure their potential losses to move the risk off their books, so they can invest more, make more money."
• (William Hurt) "And while a lot of companies insured their stuff, one was dumb enough to take on an almost unbelievable amount of risk."
• (Cynthia Nixon) "AIG."
• (Topher Grace) "And you'll work on 'dumb.'"
• (Cynthia Nixon) "And when they ask me why they did that?"
• (Topher Grace) "Fees."
• (Ayad Akhtar) "Hundreds of millions in fees."
• (William Hurt) "AIG figures the housing market would just keep going up. But then the unexpected happens."
• (Topher Grace) "Housing prices go down."
• (Ayad Akhtar) "Poor bastard who bought his dream house? The teaser rate on his mortgage runs out, his payments go up, he defaults."
• (William Hurt) "Mortgage-backed securities tank. AIG has to pay off the swaps. All of them. All over the world. At the same time."
• (Ayad Akhtar) "AIG can't pay. AIG goes under. Every bank they insure books massive losses on the same day. And then they all go under. It all comes down."
• (Cynthia Nixon) "The whole financial system? And what do I say when they ask me why it wasn't regulated?"
• (William Hurt) "No one wanted to. We were making too much money."

• (Unnamed) "Why didn't you guys head off this situation six months ago?"
• (Cynthia Nixon) "Because the requisite magic wand wasn't available, Doug. But if we do find one, you will be among the very first to know."

James Woods as Richard Fuld

• (James Woods) "You know, people act like we're crack dealers. Nobody put a gun to anybody's head and said, "Hey, nimrod, buy a house you can't afford, and you know what? While you're at it, put a line of credit on that baby and buy yourself a boat.""
• (John Heard) "You heard anything from Buffett?"
• (Amy Carlson) "He's asking for preferred shares at 40, with a dividend of nine percent."
• (James Woods) "We were just at 66. What the f***?"
• (John Heard) "Maybe it's just an opening gambit, Dick."
• (James Woods) "Sounds more like a god**** insult."
• (Amy Carlson) "Dick, we're at 36 right now. We haven't been anywhere near 66 in months. The markets like Buffett. His name will push the price up overnight."
• (James Woods) "You know, I don't care who he is. I am not spending $360 million a year for the pleasure of doing business with him. Real estate will come back."
• (John Heard) "Koreans have been sniffing around."
• (James Woods) "There you go. And they won't steal us blind. I've seen this before: CEOs panic and they sell out cheap. Right now, the Street's running around with its hair on fire, but the storm always passes. We stand strong, and on the other side, we'll eat Goldman's lunch."
• (Amy Carlson) "So what do we do about Buffett?"
• (James Woods) "Screw Warren Buffett."

• (James Woods) "Last February, we were at 66 a share. Lehman Brothers is not Bear Stearns. We have a great business. Real estate will come back. I am not f***ing giving this company away."

William Hurt as Henry Paulson

• (William Hurt) "The Fed can lend to non banks under unusual and exigent circumstances, we're thinking of taking over 80% of the company."
• (Topher Grace) "Hank we can't. This morning we were lecturing the entire country on moral hazard."
• (William Hurt) "AIG has collateral, they have assets, Lehman didn't, we couldn't lend into a hole, its not the same story."
• (Topher Grace) "Nobody is going to care, its another bailout, with no legislation, the Hill is gonna go crazy, the country is gonna go crazy."
• (William Hurt) "The plane we flew in on this morning leased from AIG, construction downtown AIG, life insurance 81 million policies with a face value of $1.9 trillion. Billions of dollars in teachers' pensions. It's everywhere, you want "too big to fail" here it is. You got a better idea -- the suggestion box is wide open."

Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke

• (Paul Giamatti) "I don't really understand why there needs to be so much tension about this. The country is facing the worst economy since the Great Depression. If the financial system collapses, it will take every one of you down."

• (Paul Giamatti) "I spent my entire academic career studying the Great Depression. The depression may have started because of a stock market crash, but what hit the general economy was a disruption of credit. Average citizens unable to borrow money, to do anything. To buy a home, start a business, stock their shelves. Credit has the ability to build a modern economy, but lack of credit has the ability to destroy it, swiftly and absolutely. If we do not act, boldly and immediately, we will replay the depression of the 1930s, only this time it will be far, far worse. We don't do this now, we won't have an economy on Monday."

Evan Handler as Lloyd Blankfein

• (Evan Handler) "I don't think I can take another day of this."
• (Evan Handler) "You're getting' out of a Mercedes to go to the New York Federal Reserve. It's not a Higgins boat on Omaha beach."

Tony Shalhoub as John Mack

• (Mack's Assistant) "Tim Geithner's calling again."
• (Tony Shalhoub) "Cover your ears. You tell Tim Geithner to f***ing blow me. I'm trying to save my company."

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