If you want to watch a movie about the real Wall Street, forget Oliver Stone fiction and watch 'Inside Job.' 'Inside Job', a 2010 film production Directed by Charles Ferguson is a candid look at the professional influences that led to the financial collapse of 2008.
Revealing interviews and information about the financial network that extends from economic academics to Wall Street and government are presented in the movie. These interviews and narrative reveal how the inner workings of profit hungry motivations can skew high level and influential people whose decisions make them richer, but negatively affect the lives of millions of people on Main Street.
Trailer for Inside Job (2010)
The film starts out in Iceland, a former stable, wealthy, smooth running Democracy with low unemployment. Iceland fell into financial chaos with its deregulation, a storyline that is then transposed to the United States and the beginnings of financial crisis of 2008 which had its roots of deregulation as far back as the Reagan era. The story illustrates how what may have been a logical economic decision swung out of control when the wrong people got involved.
Many interesting characters are interviewed in this movie, however several others who form the basis for the movies premise were purported to have declined interviews. Some of those interviewed such as Glenn Hubbard of the Columbia Business School and former Bush Administration economic advisor seem to have been caught off guard with some of the questions and provide revealing, and priceless responses.
These interviews alone add value to this movie and provide multiple angles regarding the cause and effects of the financial crisis. Among the individuals interviewed in 'Inside Job' are Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Sheng, David McCormick, Christine Lagarde, John Campbell, Emanuel Roubini, Glenn Hubbard, Charles Morris, Raghuram Rajan and more.
'Inside job' provides good insight into the character and human related causes of the 2008 financial crisis, but largely covers old ground in terms of the financial reasons, causes and results. In some ways it echoes Michael Moore's 'Capitalism'. Nevertheless, the message is clear, and the point well taken by the time the movie is over. As Andrew Sheng says via paraphrase, toward the end of 'Inside Job', "real engineers build bridges, financial engineers don't, but get paid more."
What is lacking in 'Inside Job' is the other side of the story and a more context regarding the post-crisis period. Not all financial decisions are wrong, nor are all business people are bad and corrupt. Neither are all economists, academics and politicians. Unfortunately however, enough of them were either too gullible, powerless, naive or greedy to have been able to prevent millions of Americans from losing their livelihoods, homes and country.
The perpetrators of these losses to the American people and others around the world were the same people who received golden parachutes, slap on the wrist fines, and were lying financial pundits, influenced a diluted financial reform and virtually non-existent criminal proceedings which followed in the wake of the financial crisis. This is one of the main points of the movie that as of October 31, 2010 had grossed over $600,000 in revenue according to the Internet Movie Database (IMBD).
Sources:
1. http://bit.ly/awsRpr (Inside Job)
2. http://imdb.to/cOKTDr (IMBD)
3. http://bit.ly/9TPIz5 (Denver Post)
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