Generation Zero

Wow, i've never seen such a ridiculous piece of right-wing propaganda in my life. With a straight face, they actually try to make the case that the 2008 financial crash was the fault of...get this... 1960s hippies. Yes, you heard me correctly, it was The LIBRULS!!11!!!!!1 The crash didn't happen because of deregulation, corruption and financial deepening - no, it was because Americans lost their 'morals' and began consuming conspicuously. that's right. the consumer's fault. we did this. oh, and the democrats, of course.....and the Chinese for some reason.

This is a sad attempt to say that this wasn't capitalism's fault - that it was a perversion of capitalism with too much government intervention.

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.

Disclaimer: I'm a former hedge fund guy.

Did I see the crash coming? Yes, but barely.

My fund, and a fund I represented, had mucho skin in game tied to domestic interest rates and LIBOR. So, I wanted...willed...all to be fine.

Didn't work.

1/6 of all hedge funds crashed, and didn't cost the tax payers a penny. Like a noncompetitive mom&pop restaurant, they were correctly left to fail.

Core of crash was three-pronged:

1: Federal Reserve: They've created boom/busts for 100 years. How? Just as Soviets couldn't centrally plan the price of a pencil, wheat, or gold, no one on earth can correctly centrally plan the price of money.

2: Federal Government: Goes back to the Community Reinvestment Act, forcing banks to lend to people, regardless of credit rating. Hey, I want ALL people to be rich. But, selectively punishing banks for not lending "enough" to certain racial groups is evil, anti-market, and proved to be, destructive. Banks love to lend...love it, and care not of one's race, gender, or sexual orientation. They absolutely do care if one can pay back a loan.

Think I cared the race of my clients investing $5 million, $1 million, or even in my entry level fund, $250K?

3: Wall Street(creation of CDOs etc), rating agencies (rated garbage as "A"), and Fannie and Freddie (bought garbage mortgages,and therefore, encouraged them) played huge role in this mess too. But, without items 1 and 2, 3 would have been impossible.

For all those who felt this film is just more right wing propaganda based on zero facts, I would appreciate their individual explanations calling out who, what, when, where, how and why we are now facing our "fiscal cliff" and potential economic meltdown.

It is one thing to scream "propaganda" from a shallow emotional perspective however; without providing some intelligent facts to reasonably explain your opposite viewpoint or perspective, you just appear to parroting back a completely uninformed response of "No, that's not it!" Please explain what you know factually - not emotionally - are the root causes of our fiscal cliff and potential economic meltdown.

This movie has politicians in it. Need I say more. Now you can do the critical thinking or you can give them credit and think they are the good guys. But they are now trying to gain your trust and get your votes by claiming to be for the people. They are set up under lies such as "Citizens United" where David Bossie openly admits that a great way to persuade is through movies. He is behind other movies such as Occupy Unmasked where the occupy protesters are claimed to use violence and intimidation. This movie is another "tactic" to gain trust when in reality people knew about the financial crisis in 2008 and who is behind it. Watch David Bossie's productions with cautious reserve. They like to tell some truth mixed with lies and an agenda that will keep lining their pockets and those they serve.