Inside Job - Financial Crisis
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100517/ap_ ... inside_job
CANNES, France – Charles Ferguson is telling a crime story like no other in history with his documentary "Inside Job."
The crime: the 2008 economic meltdown that cost millions their jobs, homes and financial security. The crooks: the investment bankers, political leaders, economists and other overseers who were supposed to be looking after our economic system.
"This was the biggest heist of all time," director Ferguson said in an interview Monday at the Cannes Film Festival, where "Inside Job" premiered. "I think many of the people who were involved in it were perfectly aware that that's exactly what it was."
Narrated by Matt Damon, "Inside Job" chronicles what Ferguson pegs as the root cause of our economic mess: the deregulation of the financial industry that began 30 years ago.
From the administrations of Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush, top Wall Street players insinuated themselves into government and controls were eased on investment firms. The financial system was consolidated in the hands of a few huge companies such as Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers, whose colossal size had the potential to wreck the economy if they failed.
Ferguson spells out with remarkable clarity complicated financial matters at the heart of the meltdown such as collateral debt obligations and credit-default swaps, and how huge investment banks actually bet on the failure of the same sort of risky home loans they were pushing on investors.
"I had several goals," said Ferguson, whose 2007 Iraq War study "No End in Sight" was nominated for best documentary at the Academy Awards. "One was just to show people actually this isn't that complicated. They don't have to fear that they can't understand. They actually can understand what happened here. It was pretty straightforward, in fact.
"Another goal was to let people know there are actually people who are guilty here. This wasn't a natural disaster. It's not a flood. This was something that people did to you, and you should do something to them. And I hope that in fact the film does have an effect on the political debate in the United States and in the world."
Among the roughly three dozen people interviewed in the film are billionaire financier George Soros, former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, U.S. congressman Barney Frank and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who as the state's attorney general initiated fraud lawsuits against major U.S. investment banks.
Ferguson also interviews former Bush economic advisers, ex-Wall Street executives, financial overseers from around the world and a variety of journalists. He spells out that current and former federal officials and financial custodians such as Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson declined to be interviewed.
The film puts some of those interviewed in the hotseat as Ferguson cross-examines them about their own personal stakes in the financial industry, for example, academics earning large fees for serving on corporate boards or writing favorable economic analyses commissioned by private business.
"In a lot of cases, these people were not used to being challenged. They were used to being deferred to," Ferguson said. "They were used to their students being deferential. They were used to their inferiors and subordinates being deferential. They weren't used to somebody who knew what they were doing calling them out."
While Ferguson was a strong supporter of President Barack Obama, the filmmaker said he has become disillusioned that the White House has continued with the "usual suspects" — Wall Street figures — as key economic overseers.
"There are a few people in the Obama administration who maybe should go to jail," Ferguson said.
Without drastic changes to the financial industry, calamitous economic bubbles and breakdowns will happen again, Ferguson said.
With "Inside Job" due in theaters this fall, Ferguson said he hopes the film will stoke Americans' outrage and prompt more people to demand reform.
"America's an imperfect democracy, but it's still a democracy. If people get angry enough, things will change, and that's happened before. This isn't the first time that power has been abused in American history. If you look, for example, at what happened to Richard Nixon after Watergate. He had been re-elected in 1972 by an overwhelming majority, but when it became clear that he had broken the law and abused his power, things did change. I hope there will be a similar reaction," Ferguson said.
"This is something that was done by people of wealth and privilege and power, and the remedy has to come from the population. It has to come from us. It's not going to come from somebody in Washington, D.C., deciding to do something about this. It's going to come because we make them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100517/ap_ ... inside_job
CANNES, France – Charles Ferguson is telling a crime story like no other in history with his documentary "Inside Job."
The crime: the 2008 economic meltdown that cost millions their jobs, homes and financial security. The crooks: the investment bankers, political leaders, economists and other overseers who were supposed to be looking after our economic system.
"This was the biggest heist of all time," director Ferguson said in an interview Monday at the Cannes Film Festival, where "Inside Job" premiered. "I think many of the people who were involved in it were perfectly aware that that's exactly what it was."
Narrated by Matt Damon, "Inside Job" chronicles what Ferguson pegs as the root cause of our economic mess: the deregulation of the financial industry that began 30 years ago.
From the administrations of Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush, top Wall Street players insinuated themselves into government and controls were eased on investment firms. The financial system was consolidated in the hands of a few huge companies such as Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers, whose colossal size had the potential to wreck the economy if they failed.
Ferguson spells out with remarkable clarity complicated financial matters at the heart of the meltdown such as collateral debt obligations and credit-default swaps, and how huge investment banks actually bet on the failure of the same sort of risky home loans they were pushing on investors.
"I had several goals," said Ferguson, whose 2007 Iraq War study "No End in Sight" was nominated for best documentary at the Academy Awards. "One was just to show people actually this isn't that complicated. They don't have to fear that they can't understand. They actually can understand what happened here. It was pretty straightforward, in fact.
"Another goal was to let people know there are actually people who are guilty here. This wasn't a natural disaster. It's not a flood. This was something that people did to you, and you should do something to them. And I hope that in fact the film does have an effect on the political debate in the United States and in the world."
Among the roughly three dozen people interviewed in the film are billionaire financier George Soros, former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, U.S. congressman Barney Frank and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who as the state's attorney general initiated fraud lawsuits against major U.S. investment banks.
Ferguson also interviews former Bush economic advisers, ex-Wall Street executives, financial overseers from around the world and a variety of journalists. He spells out that current and former federal officials and financial custodians such as Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson declined to be interviewed.
The film puts some of those interviewed in the hotseat as Ferguson cross-examines them about their own personal stakes in the financial industry, for example, academics earning large fees for serving on corporate boards or writing favorable economic analyses commissioned by private business.
"In a lot of cases, these people were not used to being challenged. They were used to being deferred to," Ferguson said. "They were used to their students being deferential. They were used to their inferiors and subordinates being deferential. They weren't used to somebody who knew what they were doing calling them out."
While Ferguson was a strong supporter of President Barack Obama, the filmmaker said he has become disillusioned that the White House has continued with the "usual suspects" — Wall Street figures — as key economic overseers.
"There are a few people in the Obama administration who maybe should go to jail," Ferguson said.
Without drastic changes to the financial industry, calamitous economic bubbles and breakdowns will happen again, Ferguson said.
With "Inside Job" due in theaters this fall, Ferguson said he hopes the film will stoke Americans' outrage and prompt more people to demand reform.
"America's an imperfect democracy, but it's still a democracy. If people get angry enough, things will change, and that's happened before. This isn't the first time that power has been abused in American history. If you look, for example, at what happened to Richard Nixon after Watergate. He had been re-elected in 1972 by an overwhelming majority, but when it became clear that he had broken the law and abused his power, things did change. I hope there will be a similar reaction," Ferguson said.
"This is something that was done by people of wealth and privilege and power, and the remedy has to come from the population. It has to come from us. It's not going to come from somebody in Washington, D.C., deciding to do something about this. It's going to come because we make them."
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Comments
Now 18 months or so after the disaster all we talk about in the UK is reducing the financial debt of the country. Those responsible seem to have been ignored and yet again paid enormous bonuses. It's time really strict measures were put in force.
talk about ignoring things....goldman sachs was selling packages with mortgages they knew would fail but sold to customers anyway. not only that but they told the customers they and their companies were buying it also when in reality both were betting it would lose money.
what really gets me is these banks and their greed caused these problems so what do we do? we give them billions of tax payer money to bail them out AT 0% INTEREST just so they can use that money of ours to lend back to the taxpayers while charging them interest!
so the banks fuck us over then get free money, shouldn't they be forced to drop all or many of their bs fees like their atm fees since we saved them from ruin? shouldn't we get lower interest rates when the people that helped create the mess are given my money interest free?
in the special features of 'captilasim: a love story' there's something about a bank in i think south dakota that was basically the first credit union, it was owned by the people and not the major banks. when the depression hit they cancelled all payments so farmers didn't have to pay on their farms until things got better so people didn't lose their homes and farms....that would never happen today
what are you but my reflection? who am i to judge or strike you down?
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." - Barack Obama
when you told me 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
i was thinkin 'death before dishonor'
my t.v screen froze on a fbi/gov. screen that said G.S is under criminal investagation , I haven't paid too much attention to this stuff but is the investagation just now happening ?
Godfather.