Inside Job

We got this movie from Netflix...wow, what a great movie!  It really wasn't anything we didn't know before but Charles Ferguson does a great job of giving a concise synopsis of our current economic situation. How we got here, what really happened, and what is happening now.

The film outlines how after the Great Depression the economy went almost 45 years with no financial crisis. Our financial problems started after deregulation began. There is a lot of talk about the insane risks in the derivatives markets and also how corrupt the rating agencies were and probably still are.

The scary part about the movie is the fact that nothing has really changed. We are in a recession, some people actually think things are getting better while some people realize we haven't even seen the full extent of the recession. Most people tend to look at the recession as a result of people living beyond their means, buying houses they couldn't afford, cars they couldn't afford, running up credit card debt, etc.,etc. While those are contributing factors they are more symptoms of the real problem. The real problem is our financial institutions, and, as Mr. Ferguson puts it, our "Wall Street government", Those issues haven't changed, in fact most of the big banks are now bigger than they were prior to the crash of 2008.

When I voted for President Obama one of the things I hoped he would accomplish would be drastic changes in this area but that has been a big disappointment. Keeping the same people in positions of power is not going to reform our financial problems.  It is very sad that not one person responsible for the fraud that has hurt millions of people and damaged our global economy has been held accountable. Not one person has gone to jail. The Executives have been able to run their companies into the ground, resign with taking millions with them and frequently continue to work in the financial markets. 

This movie is a great overview of why we are in a recession. Anyone who doesn't understand what happened in 2008 and where we are today as a result, should watch this movie. I highly recommend Inside Job.

'til next time...