The Eurozone was built on a neoliberal bet: liberalize the banks, let the market allocate credit and investment, and crises become a thing of the past. This first episode of a five-part web series, based on Peter Mertens' book "How Dare They?", tracks what happened when that bet failed, from the bursting of the financial bubble through the credit crunch and the debt crisis that exposed deep inequality between Europe's north and south. The film then follows the money to Brussels, where 4,500 accredited lobbyists, six times the number of sitting MEPs, hold standing access to parliament. It cites a 2012 IMF report finding the financial sector as unstable as before the crash, and details how an expert advisory group set up to recommend banking reform to the European Commission had 34 of its 42 members drawn from the financial sector itself, a composition only changed after public protest. Archival material from Associated Press and the World Economic Forum backs the case that reform stalled by design rather than accident.