Roger Ebert on "Inside Job"

[bascule]

At the Cannes 2010 film festival, a new movie called "Inside Job" about the financial crisis and how it was caused by reckless and often deceptive risk-taking and extortion which took place in the lead up to the financial crisis:

 

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/05/i_am_but_a_naive.html

 

Here is the argument of the film, in four sentences. From Roosevelt until Reagan, the American economy enjoyed 40 years of stability, prosperity and growth. Beginning with Reagan's moves against financial regulation, that sound base has been progressively eroded. The crucial federal error (in administrations of both parties) was to allow financial institutions to trade on their own behalf. Today many large trading banks are betting against their own customers.

 

This has been one of the central points of those who argue that organizations which are "too big to fail" are "too big to exist". Entities as complex as CitiGroup could never have existed before deregulation, and now that they do, nobody, including themselves, can fully understand them. Divisions trading in things like CDOs can place the entire company at risk, even if the overwhelming majority of the company is not operating in a risky manner.

 

And the way these divisions make money is by working against their customers, trying to get them to eat the proverbial "sh*t sandwich", convincing them it tastes good and not informing them of the risks.

[Pangloss]

Thanks for the heads-up. The film is said to be highly critical of the Obama administration, so it may be interesting to see how the mainstream left reacts to this attack from the farther-left.

 

I would like to say the Obama Administration was in the forefront of that crucial reform, but it was not. There seems to be an unholy bipartisan alliance in favor of Wall Street greed.

...

But it's too easy to say Democrats support it, although they do, because they stop short. If firms can still bet against their own clients, lesser measures amount to pissing on a forest fire. All current financial reform measures are taking place within a world infested with Wall Street lobbyists--four lobbyists to every member of Congress.

 

Not the first time I've seen Roger Ebert express a deep-and-abiding-faith in everything he sees in movies. (lol)

 

But in the end it's just more far-left fringie stuff from the guy who invented "Front Page" (a pretty good idea in its time) and sold it to Microsoft for a ton of money but no additional wisdom, which he's since gone on to exhibit in an amusing little array of PublicAffairs imprints that make a big splash but then show up on the discount shelf in a few weeks when the predicted mess doesn't materialize (e.g. a prediction in 2008 that the Iraq war would worsen). He and his Hollywood leisure buddies get together every year and trot out another piece of exaggerated narrative that never seems to quite be real but probably makes for great street cred in the tea-and-aromatherapy crowd.

 

But hey, it's all part of the political landscape, and a pretty colorful part at that. I'd be interested in hearing if anything substantive comes from it, or if anyone here wants to post a review when they actually see it that'd be cool.