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By the end of 2008, a staggering 2-million American homes will have been repossessed by banks, their former owners forced to walk away, simply unable to make mortgage repayments.

Welcome to the Sub Prime crisis.

Video journalist Mark Maley asks why Wall Street’s banks risked billions of dollars on these risky, high-interest home loans in the first place. He discovers a deliberate policy of minimizing risk and maximizing greed.

Former banker Charles Morris acknowledges the sub-prime lending boom was driven by Wall St, not consumers, and that bankers knew the risks. Yet the banks pushed the loans because otherwise, they would have lost huge fees.

“There’s lots of reports on record where the banks were paying extra to mortgage brokers to bring in risky deals,” he tells Maley.

The fatal miscalculation was that house prices would never fall.

Also in this episode - a look the United States' military presence in Guam, and an interview with businessman and philanthropist George Soros.

About International Dateline 

SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.