How did a newly elected president with a mandate for change respond to the crisis that would define his first term?

In episode 3 of Money, Power and Wall Street, FRONTLINE producers Michael Wiser, Mike Kirk and Jim Gilmore go behind the closed-door battles between Obama’s economic advisers. From almost the very beginning, there was a division within the team over how tough the White House should be on the banks that were at the heart of the crisis. The film documents the bitter internal struggle that resulted — and how the president ultimately decided to delay taking decisive action against the banks.

Why did Obama decide not to nationalize any banks? How much did the Federal Reserve lend to the banks? And how did the producers get these insiders to talk on the record about what went on behind closed doors?

Mike and Jim will be joining us for a live chat to discuss these questions, and take yours.

They’ll be joined by guest questioner/resident expert Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, who is covering the 2012 presidential campaign. He recently wrote “The Obama Memos: The Making of a Post-Post-Partisan Presidency.”

You can leave a question in the chat window below, and come by at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 2nd to join the live discussion.

---