wells fargo after acquiring wachovia nearly tripled its size. madam president, no single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of americans or to our nation's economic well-being. no single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure would send the world's economy into crisis. if an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist, and we should break them up. let me be very clear. we should not just be concerned about the danger of -- the dangers these institutions pose to taxpayers. the enormous concentration of ownership within the financial sector is harming the middle class and damaging the economy by limiting choices and raising prices for consumers and small businesses. today -- and it's important that people understand this, and unfortunately it is not an issue that is discussed at all, not here in congress, not much in the media. the six largest banks in america have over $10 trillion in assets , equivalent to 54% of the g.d.p. in america. w

wachovia,d this land how it was quickly known. that is where they began their colony in piedmont, north carolina. it was around this body of land in what cobia that this place --w and became -- what cobia that this place grew. their goal was to establish a farming community but those plans were delayed. salem was begun in 1766. main street, to my left, what the central axis of the town. it is the northbound axis which is the axis on which the grid was laid. for salem and ultimately winston. see theiruare we can art and aesthetics to the architecture. the architecture here is unparalleled. we can look at the earliest , this timber building which is 250 years old, one of the oldest buildings in salem, a remarkable structure. when you look at this building you can understand the origin. these early moravians came with what they knew from central europe. you see in this building the architecture and you understand the origin. they are building and the remembered traditions. the people who built this building were mostly born in europe

wells fargo for wachovia, huge expansion for the retail part of the bank a good deal.morgan stanley's $2.7 billion for the initial 51% of smith barny, adding scale and retail exposure guys, there is a theme here. the later the deal, the better prices have fallen further more importantly, deals were executed less hastily. more due diligence and lower litigation costs down the line bank of america and jp morgan paying the most largely due to the big deals during the crisis. >> i can remember the countrywide deal, there were so many who wondered immediately why in the world they would ever do that deal frankly, it's something of a mystery to some why charles lewis at the time -- i think he was the ceo -- chose to do that deal. >> absolutely. the mortgage market share, which was initially the idea behind it -- let's get more into mortgage origination simply didn't work it really ruined bank of america's reputation as being a good kind of consolidator, a deal maker, bolting on those types of companies it set them back a significant amount of time some people estimate that c

wells fargo for wachovia, huge east coast geographic expansion for the retail part of the bank.ood deal, but didn't deliver for them improved investment banking which was a small intention of the deal. the best deal was morgan stanley's 2.7 billion for 51% of smith barney, adding scale and retail exposure in wealth management which differentiates them from goldman sachs in recent years there's a theme here, the later the deal the betterment prices had fallen further but deals were done less hastily with more due diligence. the total litigation costs, not including the credit costs, highlights how bank of america and jpmorgan got the worst, the big deals they did at the time were a contributing factor to those extra litigation costs >> what jamie dimon said is significant. he may have said it tongue and cheek, but that the board wouldn't let him take the call at the time what would have happened that's part of the question if they had not stepped in. >> absolutely. clearly what happened with lehman six to ten months later was allowed to go bust would that have happened earlier, w

wachovia bank, that's where reynoldss kept the corporate account and they grew and it was one the largest banks in the country before it mental with wells fargo. tobacco started running into trouble in the '70s. as early as the mid-'50s there were rumors that this smoking thing might not be good for you. but by the ' 0 sits was start tolling have an impact on the business. and as smoking fell out of favor, the demand for cigarettes dropped, and as the demand for cigarettes dropped, employment dropped, and stay started closing factories they didn't need. the other thing that hurt was that 1980s war a tough final in winston-salem for a lot of companies. piedmont airlines had grown to be the nation's eight largest airline. still based near winston-salem. then merged with u.s. air and they didn't like each other very much and u.s. air quickly tried to erase every mention of piedmont it could find. but when that mentaller happened -- merger happened, 5,000 local jobs were lowe's. at&ts a a major manufacturing presence in winston-salem from world war 2. the finally closed the last tariff and sh

and i called one of the investigators of wachovia.result of that, they found that they were kiting checks. they were actually stealing money from the bank. >> despite what bobby told the bank, it never resulted in charges against anybody. but that wasn't all he discovered. the gps tracker on ethan's car led bobby to a couple of local pawnshops. >> pawning jewelry. the jewelry was a red flag to us. >> was it kate's jewelry? they couldn't be sure yet without more surveillance, that is. and then the landlord called gene again, another tip. this one bad. ethan and heather weren't paying rent. >> he says, "i'm going to evict these people." so after he said that -- >> this is not good news. >> i said, "hold on. if these people are evicted, we don't know where they're going." >> if the a-team didn't think of something and fast, heather and ethan might slip out of their sight and charleston for good. an enticing offer from the a-team. 10,000 reasons to start talking. >> 10s, 20s, 50s. everybody sees that and their eyes just jump. feel the cla