masonfisk
A great companion piece w/The Big Shirt, Inside Job gives all the details, from soup to nuts, of the 2008 financial meltdown. More horrifying than most slasher films, this doc shows us the greed that pervaded our financial system at the expense of many investors. The conclusions made by this film almost play as epilogue to the current state of our new president's attitude toward future finances, where deregulation will be severely curtailed.
kapelusznik18
Eye popping as well as depressing documentary of how unquenchable greed on Wall Street as well as the world money markets lead to the financial meltdown of 2007-09 that almost destroyed the world economies. The enormous amount of some 20 trillion-that's with a capital T-dollars worth of wealth and the tens if not hundreds of millions of jobs pension funds as well as real-estate holdings that went down the drain with it is still with us almost ten years later. And worst of all those responsible for all this in the world of finance and politics never paid for the crimes that they committed.We did have financial turn-downs back in 1987 as well as 1997 & 1998 with + 500 point drops in the market as well as the tech crash of 2000-03 but this is what is known to all those involved as the "Big One" in economic crashes ever bigger then the one in 1929 that brought on the "Great Depression". And despite the markets recoveries it still with us lying in wait and ready to resurface if we don't curb the irresponsible and greedy dealings of the what internet commentator Michael Rivero calls "Money Junkies" who never not only seem to learn their lessons but are permitted to get away with and be rewarded with what they do! By handing out multi-million dollar payoffs to politician's and those who are supposed to regulate them.Even the government regulatory agency SEC had a hand in this disaster by looking the other way and letting things spin out of control until, by the summer of 2008, it was too late. This lead to a combination stock and real estate bubble bursting like a puss blister on September 15, 2008 with the sudden collapse of Leaman Brothers that ended some seven months later on March 9, 2009 with the DJIA-Dow Jones Industrials-average dropping some 54% from its high ion October 2007 to 6547! The worst thing about all this is those responsible the major banks brokerage houses and rating agencies, as well as paid off regulators & politicians, not only got away with their crimes Scot- free but were rewarded with million dollar bonuses as well as promotion's for what they did! Not so for the millions of people who trusted them in giving them their hard earned money and life savings that they both stole and swindled.It was the deregulation of the banks as well as the introduction of derivatives into the markets in the 1980's that really started the ball rolling downhill for the US as well as world economies. That together with hatchet job like treaties like NAFTA & GATT that destroyed tens of millions of well paying jobs in the US. That those pushing those treaties in the world of business & politics made tens of billions for themselves and the expense of their employees and those that they represented. That's a lesson that should be well learned by the public whenever someone running for or in office promises them the world but only ends up giving them the business!
Christopher Reid
As with another Charles Ferguson documentary (No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos), the people being interviewed in this film seem to fit clearly into two types:1) The informed and decent people that saw the corruption and evil occurring. They anticipated the impending disaster and tried to prevent it or alert people to it but were completely ignored and minimalised. They are still shocked and frustrated about it to this day.2) The people who were a part of the problem and profited greatly. When questioned, they can barely string a sentence of words together or look the interviewer in the eye because of their obvious guilt and confusion. The filmmakers are well-researched and direct and leave the interviewees scrambling for explanations.Inside Job is sickening. I feel like I now understand roughly what caused the global financial crisis. How can those people sleep at night? I'm reminded of the holocaust and the problem of deciding who was responsible for the killing of so many innocent people. "It wasn't me, I was told they were just having showers!" "I just created the poison gas, I didn't know what they were going to use it for!" "I was following orders!" "I managed some of the logistics, sure, but I never came within miles of any of it!" "Everyone was doing it, I didn't have a choice!" Everyone distances themselves from what's really happening. There are too many layers and it becomes vague who was responsible for what.The banks seem to have done something similar. The system fell apart in so many places. It had so many layers adding their little bit to the corruption and lies. And maybe most problematic of all - none of it was properly regulated. Nobody felt a need to carefully scrutinise things when they were making so much money selling lies. Monetary incentives created all kinds of conflicts of interest.And then when it all falls down, they point their fingers at the other parts of the system. They claim they were just giving opinions or that they couldn't have known an investment was bad. But really they didn't care at all because they knew it was only innocent people external to the system that would be the losers. They believed they'd get away with it and it seems they did. They get their huge bonuses and many retain powerful, high-earning positions today.I'm both interested in economics and convinced that its almost completely meaningless. As one man said in the movie, why are these financial engineers making 4 to 100 times more than actual, real engineers? Does economics have anything to do with reality? He analogised that they sell dreams. But who holds them accountable when those dreams turn out to be nightmares?Obama promised changes but it sounds like they ended up being few and very watered down. What power do we have against these millionaires and billionaires? They can lobby, buy or persuade anything or anyone. It seems they control the U.S. government. What are we meant to think? Perhaps the worst feeling is similar to when JFK was assassinated. Who did this and why? We just want to know. Cowardly, invisible crimes are the worst.
Steve Pulaski
When I first saw Charles Ferguson's Inside Job, I got lost in its concepts, its economic jargon, and its lengthy, drawn-out explanation of the 2007-08 financial crisis North America, and pretty much the world, was impacted by. After a semester of AP (advanced placement) Macroeconomics under my belt, I return with the idea that I think I know anything and everything about macroeconomics, the economy, and approach Inside Job with more of a knowledge about its terms. This is the kind of film that is reminiscent of one of those social clubs downtown where, if you try to jump in with no background knowledge as to what some of the basics of the club are, you're going to be lost in the shuffle.The film attempts to explain to the average person - who bears some understanding of the American macroeconomic system - why the last few years have been painful, why the recovery has been lengthy and ostensibly nonexistent, and why the financial crash occurred in the first place. I won't begin to try to summarize it here for several reasons: it could spawn a plethora of confusion, the explanation, even in a simple sense, deserves its own separate blog post, and that's what the film is for in the first place.I will say that the film's main point of why we entered such a crippling recession in the first place was because of banks marketing heavy loans to people they knew couldn't afford them. The loans were called "subprime loans," and even the issuers of the loans were betting against the casual American investor who bought into the scheme. Millions defaulted on their mortgage payments and their loans, and as a result, the housing market crashed and we were left with millions in a dire financial turmoil.The field of economics is, in my opinion, alienating beyond belief, because, much like science, it seems every single sentence in an article bears three or four words you don't understand. When trying to find definitions on those words, you are lost and wayward in trying to find the meaning of other words that were given in the definitions of the words you initially didn't understand. To top it all off, even on the news, you hear about murder, drugs, suicide, war, terror, the weather, and so on - everything that seems much more active and interesting than hearing that "the DOW dropped 'x' amount of points today." Inside Job attempts to cut through that alienation and, in turn, makes complex ideas accessible to the general public. Furthermore, the film details how during the time of the massive economic downturn, the field of economics lost a great deal of credibility because economists decided to write false reports and deliver false ideas on the economy's progress and current state for others, all working to swindle the common American investor and work for only ones personal gang. It's a cruel and unusual truth that, as a result, put a damper on an unbelievably valuable field that teaches one how to conserve and utilize current resources.The only concern of my was the way the film was edited, which seemed to be geared towards giving some people less opportunity to speak. Some interviews are cut off right after a question is asked, which usually happens after one of the talking head economists says something stupid. One thing I'm beginning to notice about documentaries is how editing plays a big part in the message they convey, and I couldn't help but feel that editors Chad Beck and Adam Bolt cut out crucial additional material that would've further shed light on certain circumstances, rather than stopping at one of the economist's poorly-worded answers.If anything, the film goes on to illustrate the idea that there is no one you can't trust but yourself in today's world. The Wall Street brokers and investors couldn't care less about you, as they spend a hefty part of their salaries and your investments on high-end hookers, drugs, and Girls Gone Wild tapes, the economists want to work in lockstep with those giving them the biggest kickbacks, and even the wealthy CEOs of banks we've all heard of can orchestrate large schemes but still can barely answer a simple question without fumbling the words. It's a frightening world we live in nowadays, one that, despite more awareness to many social issues and one that tries to emphasize safety, is still extremely reckless in many respects.Inside Job, in a documentary's sense, is one big, angry, well-stated argument that makes an attempt to clarify all the information one needs to know about the financial crisis and even attempts to place blame on the individuals that apparently caused such a crisis. It's a hefty goal for itself, and the film really shouldn't succeed as well as it does. However, through clarity, a brisk-pace, and the ability to give us a clear indication on why this film impacts each and every one of us deserves praise that should simply not be shortchanged. It's an important picture; arguably the most important you'll see in a specific year.Narrated by: Matt Damon. Directed by: Charles Ferguson.
