An inside look at the US Federal Reserve, the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth.

Since 1971, the US dollar and the global financial system have been based solely on faith - faith in the guardian of that currency and of that system: The American Central Bank, the Federal Reserve.

The dollar is the most remarkable achievement in the history of money .... This piece of paper somehow still commands value and respect. How can the dollar be anything except the world's greatest monetary brand, the Coca Cola of money? Jim Grant, economist

Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the US Federal Reserve has never been greater.

Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed chairman's every word.

Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth.

"There is this perception that people have that the Fed is this kind of black box. Nobody quite understands it," says Charles Plosser, president of the Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

This film takes viewers inside the Fed and reveals the impact of Fed policies - past, present, and future - on our lives.

Join current and former Fed officials as they debate the critics, and each other, about the decisions that helped lead the global financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008.

"The Fed is supposed to be the guardian of financial stability, preventing chaos in markets. Usually it can do that, but in the summer of 2008, it could not do it and we did get chaos," says Alan Blinder, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve (19994-1996).

What caused the crisis in the first place? What brought the wealthiest nation in history to its knees? And are we headed there again?

FILMMAKER'S BIOGRAPHY

Money For Nothing: Inside The Federal Reserve is Jim Bruce's directorial debut.

Jim was editor/writer/co-producer of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars (winner of Best Documentary at the 2005 AFI Fest and finalist for the 2006 International Documentary Association's Feature Film of the Year).

Jim worked as an editor on the acclaimed documentaries The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and Dambe: The Mali Project (nominated for Best Feature Documentary at the 2009 Irish Academy Awards), and as an assistant editor on X-Men: The Last Stand, The Incredible Hulk, Insomnia and Kinsey. He holds a degree in film from Middlebury College, where he taught as a visiting professor in 2007.

Jim has been a student of financial markets for over a decade, and began writing a financial newsletter in 2006 warning friends and family of the oncoming crisis. His short trades on financial stocks in 2007 and 2008 helped fund a significant portion of Money for Nothing's budget.

Source: Al Jazeera