"Inside Job" wins Oscar for Best Documentary Feature

[georgiaboy]

Anyone wondering what's on people's minds these days? The financial crisis.

The first thing the filmmaker who won the Oscar said was that in the three years since the financial crisis began, noone has gone to jail. Apparently the film rails on Wall Streeters & those in power who made the crisis happen.

Anyone seen it?

 

[cubical]

I can't bring myself to watch it. I am sure they blame the wrong people or at least fail to blame most of the right people.

 

[dannno]

Haven't seen it, but apparently it does a pretty good job of identifying the problem, but gives the wrong solution.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Watched it. We had a thread going about this documentary last week. Well worth a watch.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

I can't bring myself to watch it. I am sure they blame the wrong people or at least fail to blame most of the right people.

The biggest "mistake" in the movie is showing Barney Frank as if he was an innocent bystander. The way most of the interviews go, the movie could be titled "Parade of Liars".

 

[Jeremy]

Haven't seen it, but apparently it does a pretty good job of identifying the problem, but gives the wrong solution.

wuuut? that never happens!

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Link to watch the movie:

http://www.megavideo.com/?d=7H13GVR5

 

[ClayTrainor]

From a thread on imdb

"‘Inside Job’ is directed by Charles H. Ferguson. His past works include a film called ‘No End in Sight – The American Occupation of Iraq’ – a piece critical of the Bush administration’s management of the war in Iraq. So far, so good. Sort of.

The alarming thing about Ferguson is his lifelong membership of the Council on Foreign Relations. See CFR’s private membership roster (http://www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=F) and Ferguson’s Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Ferguson).

CFR is a think tank which, in a nutshell, exists to shape the US international agenda in favour of its corporate members. CFR’s corporate roster is here (http://www.cfr.org/about/corporate/roster.html), and it makes for some startling reading.

The founding member corporations of CFR are as follows:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Chevron Corporation
Exxon Mobil Corporation
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Hess Corporation
McKinsey & Company, Inc.
The Nasdaq OMX Group

How can a ‘lifelong member’ of this global banking and Big Oil corporate cabal make such an exposé? Well, Ferguson’s membership of CFR does not constitute a conflict of interest as one might surmise. Instead, it illustrates his real motives; his film is not an exposé, it is a distraction.

The focus of Ferguson’s 2007 piece, ‘No End in Sight – The American Occupation of Iraq’, is the US government’s post-invasion decision-making failures. Insufficient troop levels, looting in Baghdad, and corruption in the Iraqi government form the backbone of the film. Clearly, the film distracts audiences from what really matters: the decision to go to war in the first place, absent of evidence, and the relentless propaganda campaign from the media that aimed to legitimise the illegal war...

As with ‘No End In Sight’, ‘Inside Job’ will not reveal the truth or bring the real culprits to light. Ferguson’s agenda is clear; he is a mouthpiece for his corporate CFR bedfellows. This type of pseudo-exposé aims to distract audiences from the significant truths by focusing on secondary matters. The viewer will be led around by the nose like a blinkered horse, while Ferguson’s war criminal pals can continue bombing and looting to their black hearts’ content. Inside Job? I couldn’t think of a better name."

 

[JasonC]

Jeffrey Lurie, owner of my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, is the producer (or one of them) of this documentary..

 

[JasonC]

OK. I'm only a minute or two in and I already heard them claim the beginning of Iceland's financial crisis began with deregulation and privitization.

 

[eric_cartman]

they basically say that the main cause of the crisis was "deregulation" .. .they repeat this over and over again. They mention the Fed and Bernanke a few times, but they don't really talk about the Fed and the monetary system and low interest rates as being the cause. There are some good interviews because it shows the corruption on wall st. but they really let the government and the fed off the hook. They sort of just blame the government for the "deregulation" and that's about it... they also made it seem as if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were private companies. Clearly this film was not made by an Austrian Economist and no Austrians were interviewed. It's still worth watching, but it's pretty frustrating watching it because you can tell how it's designed for the left leaning socialists who want the government to "regulate" everything and that this is going to solve all the problems.

 

[gray527]

I certainly understand where they are coming from. The laws passed changing and removing regulations were written by financial institution lobbyists for financial institutions. Those laws directly contributed with the crisis. Therefore their thinking is if deregulation caused the problem then regulation is the answer. To oversimplify it I'd say the financial bubble is a symptom of deregulation which is a symptom of regulation. You could also say: regulation > deregulation > lack of competition and, regulation > deregulation > corruption.

In my oversimplification the obvious choice would be to get rid of regulation and let the free hand manage. Obviously the world doesn't change on a dime. It's politically, socially, and economically impossible to remove all regulations immediately. Therefore I'd say the solution is deregulation over time.

How do we prevent the market bubbles, destruction of open competition, and corruption when deregulating? It's tough to sell people on further deregulation being the answer when deregulation has so visibly caused so many problems.

 

[georgiaboy]

thanks for the replies, all. In the OP, I mentioned that the filmmaker was outraged that non of the guilty had gone to jail yet.

Did the documentary call out by name people who should be indicted?

 

[BrendenR]

Artificially low interest rates are a problem.

But I think fraud is also a huge problem that needs to be addressed separately.

Banks were selling products rated AAA that were actually BBB to institutions that were required to invest in AAA. And indeed, many people were investing and betting on those products actually being AAA as they were rated, when they were in fact junk. Without deception, that never could have occurred.

 

[hazek]

Mission accomplished by the controlled opposition with identifying the right problem and providing the wrong dead-end solution.

 

[Romulus]

Mission accomplished by the controlled opposition with identifying the right problem and providing the wrong dead-end solution.

Exactly.

 

[Seraphim]

I turned it off 120 seconds into the documentary. They went off on an immediate tangent saying the Greenspan is a libertarian and that his actions were based on libertarian ideology and that that was the cause. Seriously, it was a fuckin' disgrace.

I can't bring myself to watch it. I am sure they blame the wrong people or at least fail to blame most of the right people.

 

[Humanae Libertas]

What a joke of a documentary. I found it rather boring to watch...

 

[georgiaboy]

Mission accomplished by the controlled opposition with identifying the right problem and providing the wrong dead-end solution.

the thought had crossed my mind as well.

 

[NewRightLibertarian]

I have a hard time stomaching any type of mainstream documentaries or periodicals these days. It is very infuriating to witness the spin coming from establishment talking heads and not be able to really do anything about it.