Inside Job

[Highway61]

Last weekend we got the movie "Inside Job". It's a look at what happened with Lehman, Bear Sterns, Wall Street, etc. and it's totally disconcerting and quite worrisome. Phil Gramm, Hank Paulsen, Bernanke, Tim Geither should be taken out behind the woodshed. Bill Clinton didn't help with his deregulation and Bush made it even worse.
They still haven't done anything tangible to prevent this from happening again. There were two business school professors - one from Columbia and one from Harvard, I don't remember their names nor do I want to. Their arrogance was beyond the pale as they are both a couple of the biggest dirtballs I have ever seen. I am more cynical than ever after having watched that. Unless they bring back the Glass - Steagall act, regulate derivatives, put a bunch of people in prison and break up the big banks we are at risk of being eating up by their greed in ways one could ever imagine. As far as I am concerned, it is already too late. The genie is out of the bottle. If you haven't seen it, by all means do. It's a real eye opener. Scary f^cking bullshit is what it is.

[NJCher]

1. re the business school profs

They were probably funded by the Koch Brothers. They do that, you know. It is part of their propaganda campaign. They pay for professorships at schools all over the country and I believe they have over 163 schools participating. The subject has been covered well here at DU.


Cher

[Highway61]

3. I did not know that

funding possibly came from the Koch Bros. Wow. Our son just graduated from Columbia Law, which made it more sickening for us. I'm sure it was covered here on DU but to be honest I work so much that my time here is rather limited. Feel like I'm on a treadmill lately. Thanks for the info. I will have to dig into that.

[jmowreader]

2. "Regulating" derivatives won't do it

They're going to have to ban quite a few of them, starting with collateralized debt obligations--the chicken pot pie of derivatives in that you can pool multiple kinds of derivatives to make one, including other CDOs. Their basic intent is to serve as somewhere to place derivatives you can't move otherwise, and that's a problem: if you can't place all of an issue of a particular derivative, there may be something wrong with the underlying.

[Highway61]

4. To be honest with you

My husband is in finance, has been all his life. At the end he said he couldn't begin to understand (after a while) what the fuck they were doing. Selling this and betting on that. One big casino (ponzi) scheme. Who the hell thinks up this shit?

[Octafish]

6. Crooks.

Know your BFEE: Goldmine Sacked or The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One

[BeFree]

7. Crooks

Seems it is hard for many to realize that reality.

My guess is they see TV and see all these little guys heading for the slammer. So they think crooks are just little guys, since we hardly ever see the big boys heading for the slammer?

Shit, this country allowed the biggest damn liar a paid retirement, with full benefits after 8 years of ripping off anyone and everyone. And killing a million peeps.

If there is any sign that our education system has failed, it is that most people never realize who is f'k'n them. And here we are.

Good to see your posting, Octafish.

[jmowreader]

10. It seems like Rube Goldberg (or one of his descendants) was responsible

But instead of "light a cigar in 79 steps, requiring three hamsters and a tank of helium," it was "write 60 mortgages to 40 jobless people and make sure none of us loses any money when all the homes are lost."

I was going to ask you to ask your husband if he thought it legal to create stock for a company that doesn't exist, but thought better of it: due to the magic of shell corporations, synthetic derivatives and junk bonds, you could probably create a corporation whose only function was to issue stock in itself, put out a prospectus stating this firm has no assets, no liabilities and no barriers to entry because the company has no business, and sell through the IPO in half an hour.

[midnight]

5. K&R Bring back the Glass - Steagall act.

[Al the Electrician]

8. HBO: TOO BIG TO FAIL

5/26/2011


A few days prior to my sitting and writing out this little essay I became aware of a scheduled showing of a HBO special called TOO BIG TO FAIL. I was impressed by the hub-bub this show was generating so I stayed up late and viewed the program and found it very entertaining. I do not mean that it a snide way, it is a serious subject. What I enjoyed most I think is that the actors involved demonstrated some sufficient competence in dealing with the subject matter, equivalent to what I think is reasonably expected of the general public. For clarity, the HBO program is not complete, there is much more to tell. The actors in dealing with the development of their characters learned more of value in that process than they would have had they matriculated an MBA curriculum at university or business school. There are indeed some half truths and particular damage control aspects in the show sufficient to cry fowl, cover up continues etc.

The point?,
well overall, it is a good benchmark, it proves that the average joe no longer has the excuse of claiming " oh all that crap is too complicated, that hurts my head, it's all mumbo jumbo, etc." I can not over stress the importance of this. It is in fact the primary reason I am writing this. Far too few Americans, still today do not even have the willingness to explore the subject or attempt an understanding of the case comparable to what these actors have achieved. The public awareness must go well beyond this benchmark if we are to survive as a nation. So for the record what was left out was any mention of Glass-Steagall and the fictitious value nature of derivatives,

http://metaphorman.tripod.com/002/024.html

[Highway61]

9. Surviving as a nation

This shit went global. I have to rent To Big To Fail. Never saw it. As far as the willingness to explore? I am sick of the "glazed over look" in people's eyes when you mention any of this. I blame the crooks behind this crap, but I blame the American people more. Ignorant and LAZY.

[Bozita]

11. CBC's "Meltdown" is a great companion piece for "Inside Job"

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/meltdown/about.html

EPISODE GUIDE - HOST
Doc Zone has traveled the world - from Wall Street to Dubai to China - to investigate The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse. Meltdown is the story of the bankers who crashed the world, the leaders who struggled to save it and the ordinary families who got crushed.

September 2008 launched an extraordinary chain of events:
General Motors, the world’s largest company, went bust.
Washington Mutual became the world’s largest bank failure.
Lehman Brothers became the world’s largest bankruptcy ever:

The damage quickly spread around the world, shattering global confidence in the fundamental structures of the international economy.

The CBC’s Terence McKenna takes viewers behind the headlines and into the backrooms at the highest levels of world governments and banking institutions, revealing the astonishing level of backstabbing and tension behind the scenes as the world came dangerously close to another Great Depression.

Meltdown also tells the stories of desperate foreclosed homeowners in California, disillusioned autoworkers at the end of the line in Ontario and furious workers in France who shocked the world by kidnapping their own bosses.

Since the financial meltdown began, trillions of dollars have been spent rescuing banks and jumpstarting economies, yet recovery remains fragile. Fears abound of a “double-dip” return to recession.

The millions around the world who lost homes and jobs are demanding answers: How did it all go so wrong? Who is to blame? They are angry because to date, only a few smalltime players have been held to account. No major banking, regulatory or government figures have yet been convicted of any wrongdoing.

Meltdown is the first comprehensive documentary portrait of the worst economic crisis of a generation.

PROMO - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWRphrYmj94&feature=related (33 seconds)

HOUR 1: The Men Who Crashed the World - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xsr_W5JwI
Greed and recklessness by the titans of Wall Street triggers the largest financial crash since the Great Depression. It's left to US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, himself a former Wall Street banker, to try and avert further disaster.

HOUR 2: A Global Tsunami - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biU6QTYvnSs&feature=related
The meltdown's devastation ripples around the world from California to Iceland and China. Facing economic ruin, desperate world leaders are at each other's throats.

HOUR 3: Paying the Price - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3eFdNMbOTg&feature=related
The victims of the meltdown fight back. In Iceland, protestors force a government to fall. In Canada, ripped off autoworkers occupy their plant. And in France, furious union members kidnap their bosses.

HOUR 4: After the Fall - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMKYn8l15IU&feature=related
Investigators begin to sift through the meltdown's rubble. Shaken world leaders question the very foundations of modern capitalism while asking: could it all happen again?