Generation Zero

In light of the book just put out by a liberal New York Times writer who draws many of the same conclusions the movie does -- and traces the problems back to many of the same decisions made by those in government getting rich off crony capitalism and holes in the regulatory structure they themselves put in place, I'd say our Canadian friend who gave this a one star review might want to put on his thinking cap next time before opening his big sneering maw.

A very nice visual addendum to that book, Reckless Endangerement.

The fact is, we didn't just get where we are by accident; and though many don't want to hear it, actual decisions made by actual politicians trying to control a business sector whose job it is to make profit led directly to the current economic crisis. It's easy to promise people everything they want, to tell them they deserve it, and to run on a platform of "the other side wants to take it all away from you." But the truth is, money has to come from somewhere, and the government can't produce wealth. It can only collect it, spend it, and redistribute it after taking its cut. The sooner people understand economics, the faster we'll be able to fix what ails us.

This is a right wing attack ad disguised as a documentary.There are no real facts presented, just the normal right wing rants about how everyone who doesn't agree with their view point is ruining the country.Democrats = communists,all regulations are strangling the business world,social programs are bleeding us dry, etc. At least they could have tried to make this interesting but no the constant attacks on everyone but Wall Street and so self righteous that after less than a quarter of the documentary it starts to grate on your nerves. Hippies, Godlessness, 50's mothers (women), Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, too much regulation caused the 2008 crash! REALLY?!! If you don't think but follow along and believe all the right wing crap this film will appeal to you, otherwise don't bother watching this.

I usually enjoy documentaries. I want to know what caused the financial crisis of 2008. Books like "When Genius Failed," "The Big Short," and "Liar's Poker," really shed light on Wall St's ugly side and the tricks they used to engineer the collapse of 2008. Unfortunately this garbage of a documentary largely fails at explaining anything but instead injects completely biased opinions ranging from Godlessness, to Saul Alinsky as reasons for our economic despair. REALLY?!! This film covers the usual right wing Kool Aid topics like, Hippies, Godlessness, 50's mothers (women), Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, too much regulation, you've heard all this garbage before on Youtube commentaries but this movie lumps it them in one long propaganda film. The non stop music starts to grate on your nerves and is a shameless attempt to manipulate your emotions. Unfortunately morons will use this film as an echo chamber to their already warped sense of what is happening in this world.

Cherry picking generality while purposely omitting facts does not make for an accurate documentary. Banks "too big to fail" and the collapse of the housing market came as a result of the deregulation of banking which started in 1978 under Reagan. TARP, while very flawed under Obama, was started by Bush. Bush also cut taxes while opting to take the US to war in Afghanistan & Iraq. More spending with less revenue results is a bigger problem. Plenty of mistakes have been make by both sides. The sad reality is that the primary role of an elected official is to raise funds to get re-elected. Doing what's correct is a career ending move. Instead of spending money on this drivel, give that money to charity (not a PAC).

I give this film three stars because that's about how many true statements it contains. But firstly, this director uses the same psychological machinations that the latest president's political consultants used to get him elected - cognitive dissonance (tension which comes from holding two conflicting or unconnected thoughts in the mind at the same time). The images on the screen hold very little or no reinforcement of what the narrator is saying, and usually distracts from the point. They do, however, reinforce multitudinous snide innuendos.

I could only absorb what was said by not watching the screen, but only listening. Listening was made difficult because the music (also distracting and irrelevant) was way too loud. In order to hear the narratives, you have to turn up the volume and put up with ear-splitting music apparently also designed to enhance the dissonance.

The "meat" of the film is that there are cycles in society which lead to war, peace, prosperity and change. Guess which one we're in. This doomsday presentation traces all the blame to a US generation that is easy to make fun of, with no tenable connection, for the debt and inflation explosion at the inevitable disaster. I've not read all the books by the scholars interviewed, but I'm familiar enough with the liberal organizations they associate themselves with. Economics is the result of more than just opinions, but productivity, creativity and policy. They correctly point out the flaws in the recent (post 2008) desperate machinations of the Fed and US Treasury, but offer no solutions, evasive actions we may take, or even useful warnings.

I found tongue-in-cheek humor in the images that flash continuously past the viewer. Some, like a flash of suckling piglets on a sow's abdomen or the many scenes of exploding buildings, appear so ridiculous in view of the narration that if you turned off the sound, this could be an entertaining film.

Expect to be alarmed, depressed and confused by this film, not enlightened or edified.