Inside Job

[anthony]

I watched the documentary Inside Job last night. I thought it was very well done. I'm jotting down a few takeaways from my perspective, but I'm interested to hear from others who have seen it. What were your thoughts about the film?

- The movie does the best it can in explaining a very complex situation in a way that (most) people can understand. Simple and easy to follow.

- Film quality (screenplay, dialogue, narration, cinematography) are very good for a documentary, a genre that sometimes seems compelled to thrift by nature.

- The film seems to do a fair job of equally placing blame on both sides of the political isle and so doesn't alienate one party or the other. Alienating would have prevented an objective view and would have forced some to tune out key points. It does a fair job placing blame in the right places outside politics, in financial and real estate sectors. I agree with Cullen Roche's recent article that more blame could have been placed on ordinary citizens who overextended themselves in credit, but I'm also not sure how you might fit it in; it just didn't seem like the film's purpose.

- Better investigative journalism would have made stronger more damning material presentable. There were too many interviews with tight-lipped bosses, with pointed questions that made them clam up. After a while, the viewer is left with a feeling, "Okay, I get it. These guys are dirty. Can we hear from someone who will spill their guts now." I would have enjoyed some "obscured images" of semi-anonymous insiders telling their story or diming out high-level bosses.

- The film is divided into logical sections, mostly chronological in nature. In doing so it closes primarily with a piece on "Where are We Now." I felt like the ending could have been improved by some perspective on "What's Next?" In closing the documentary, I would have preferred a piece detailing elements of the debate on possible solutions for the problems that were outlined before, during and after the crisis. I wanted to hear more about what actions were possilbe for financial leaders, political leaders, business leaders, law enforcement officials, and ordinary citizens.

- The film starts with a piece on Iceland in the late 2000s. I think going back to Iceland or other affected countries or even US states and seeing what they are doing now to try and reform might have been a good way to close, considering my notes in the previous comment above.

- This film will make you angry! As I watched it I thought of the millions of people rotting in jail over lesser crimes. Trust me, I enjoy a law-abiding/law-enforcing society and don't excuse the actions of criminals, even petty ones. However, this film made me realize how easily we punish easy prey, small fish criminals, while allowing to slip away the "bank robbers" who for all intents stole billions of dollars and crashed our system out of greed. I grew frustrated while watching because I kept thinking, someone needs to make these people pay.

That's all for me. A added a couple more resources on the film below. If you've seen it, please add some comments.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Job_(film)
Ebert's Review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101013/REVIEWS/101019990/1023
Cullen Roche's Review: http://seekingalpha.com/article/256612-financialization-and-our-increasingly-unstable-economy

Regards,
Anthony

 

[alevin]

Havent watched it, but Karl Denninger has been documenting the same stuff on his blog daily for several years now.

 

[anthony]

Havent watched it, but Karl Denninger has been documenting the same stuff on his blog daily for several years now.

Could you post a link?

 

[alevin]

http://market-ticker.org/ daily commentary-many different but related fiscal and economic corrupution topics.

http://market-ticker.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?forum=Market-Ticker second link will get you to his older commentaries. I think he started the Ticker in 07-I was reading warnings about oncoming RE bust, accounting corruption, etc long before the meltdown occurred. He won a national award for journalism last year.

 

[anthony]

alevin, thanks for posting those. I took a few reads last night. Pretty good material, and well cited.

 

[anthony]

In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures

Today I read another article following along the lines of the issues addressed in the movie Inside Job. In the piece, "In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures" by G. Morgenson and L. Story at New York Times, they address many of the topics of the crash, banks overextension, use of CDOs, and fraudulent or questionable activity among the top corporations in each field (finance, ratings agencies, real estate).

This is a long article, but appears well researched and objective. I thought it did expand on the Inside Job documentary by pursuing further the issue of "what's next?" by delving into the complexities of prosecuting the offenders.

The writers make an interesting point in comparing this financial crisis to the savings and loan scandal in which 100s of people were prosecuted and found guilty. That has not been the case in this, a seemingly far worse series of events than that of the eighties. This problem is punctuated by the idea that the collapse occurred due to deregulation, and that failure to regulate has created an evidence gap hindering prosecution.

In these areas the article makes a great companion read or follow-up for Inside Job.