Inside Job: chi ci ha rubato il futuro

Inside Job is an enthralling documentary about how the reckless actions of Wall Street lead to the near collapse of the financial sector and subsequently the deepest recession since the 1930s. This is the second film by director Charles Ferguson, the first being No End in Sight an equally engaging indictment of the Bush Administration's handling of the occupation of Iraq.

Ferguson focuses on the Wall Street culture and the blatant arrogance of a half dozen men as the main causes of the financial turmoil. Inside Job begins in Iceland where the deregulation of the financial system in the 1990s lead to three banks accumulating assets almost ten times the small country's gross domestic product.

It becomes clear by the midpoint of the film that Iceland is a micro example of what has become a global problem. Runaway banks have been accumulating assets through toxic loans and other manoeuvres while paying themselves lavish bonuses.

Inside Job is easily one of the most frustrating documentaries ever made. And that is undoubtedly Ferguson's intention. The film is critical of Wall Street executives, credit agencies and especially regulatory agencies for the crisis.

Inside Job includes interviews from IMF head Dominique Strauss-Khan, congressmen Barney Frank, former New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer and many others. Ferguson traces the evolution of the banks from a small, largely local service to an out of control industry. He does not hold back criticizing every administration since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Ferguson argues that despite what most people think, there were many people warning of an impending crisis in global financial markets. Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Timothy Geithner ignored various signs of impending doom. Not to mention former treasury secretary and incidentally former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson.

Inside Job makes the argument that the federal regulators are as responsible for the breakdown of the system as are the executives of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. More frustrating still is the revolving door between Wall Street and government agencies.

As the banks became more deregulated, the more speculation became a problem. Derivatives, and credit default swaps, complicated trading schemes that most people do not understand is what caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers sending shockwaves through financial centres all over the world.

Credit agencies like Moody's and Standard and Poor gave firms like Bear Stearns, Lehman brothers, and Morgan Stanley A grade credit ratings within weeks before they nearly collapsed. And also having one of their executives standing up in front of a congressional committee and telling congressmen that their ratings are just merely 'opinion'.

It becomes clear that this is not a problem that emerged from the housing boom early in president George W. Bush's second term. Rather this was a systematic breakdown driven by a neoliberal ideology supported by Ivey league economic schools across the United States.

Inside Job is simply a story of bankers more interested in collecting bonuses and making more money than providing what should be an essential service. What makes it even more frustrating is that many of the key figures behind the crisis are currently on Barak Obama's staff. The film leaves us with a bitter pill to swallow.

As Ferguson notes, Wall Street has returned to normal with no federal prosecutions against any of the guilty. And one of the most poignant scenes in the film comes from Robert Gnaizda, the former head of the Greenlining Institute, a consumer lobbyist group who laughingly dismisses recent legislation to regulate banks with a simple 'Hah'.

Inside Job helps explain many of the complex terms such as derivatives and insurance backed securities that confuse those not immersed in the banking community. It is essential viewing for any citizen concerned about our broken system.

This film portrayed a horrific set of circumstances in a measured and brilliantly illustrated manner. The economic issues were explained by clear, understandable graphs. Many major players appeared on camera to their detriment. The few that didn't appear were shown through press clips.

The most awful scene to me was the footage of the tent city with unemployed, lost and bewildered American workers, their jobs lost directly because of the antics of the Wall Street monsters. It could easily happen here in Godzone.

Highly recommended.

About 30 people at the 7PM show in the Music Box theater in Chicago last nite, and I was one of them.

I am always looking for two things on this economic disaster: 1) A better understanding, and 2) a means of explaining it better to others. This film delivers in both counts.

For me the key sequence came when the graphics, under solid narration, illustrated how 3rd tier investors were placing bets on bets. I.e., that's what derivatives are. I always knew this was happening, but the film made it very clear. That was the break point (in my analysis of the problem).

The film was nearly void of political leanings, which made it an important contribution. The only part that bothered me is that Congressman Barney Frank was framed as an expert looking back with wisdom on the ill-conceived passage of the "Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000", and, behold! Barney Frank *voted* for it. It would be better to interview all 4 Congressmen who voted against it: Ron Paul, Nick Smith, Gene Taylor and Peter DeFazio. [2 from each Party! How's that for Bipartism opposition? It took me 10 minutes to confirm these names, and I'm not even making a movie.]

It is significant that a continuum of hoodlums are seen on the podium with a continuum of Prsidents: Regan through Obama. The infestation of their ilk into the Political World is there for all to see.

Please see this film any way you can, and lock it in!

"If a bank forecloses on you, don't move and demand they produce a copy of your mortgage. In many cases, they can't." Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio)

In the course of the angry and benignly biased documentary, Inside Job, Marcy Kaptur predicts what is happening right now: Banks are being forced to halt foreclosures because of faulty paperwork. But such mistakes are only a symptom Charles Ferguson reveals of the 2008 world-wide financial crisis, which involves high-ranking government officials like Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner increasing their power while the policies they make cause certain harm to the people like us who have trusted them.

Like Fergusin's No End in Sight about the Iraq War, but more interesting and dramatic, Inside Job lays out logically the participation also of George Bush and Barack Obama in the global meltdown. Dispiriting are the derivative dispersal and shameful sub-prime lending that directly led to the breakdown of middle-class wealth while the purveyors of this massacre walked away with billions and no indictments. The Ponzi schemes of Kenneth Lay, Bernie Madoff, and their ilk are but small components of the charade that drew millions of hard-working, well-meaning citizens into debt and financial ruin as the value of their most cherished retirement vehicle, home value, dissipated right in front of their eyes.

Ferguson's documentary style is to remain behind the camera while letting the notables indict themselves. Unlike Michael Moore, he cares not to intrude or make a character of himself, something like Citizen Kane's reporter Thompson. Except when in a moment of profound pique he challenges the disaffection of Frederic Mishkin, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors: "I'm sorry, I'm sure that your textbook is important and widely read, but didn't you think that more important things were going on in the world?"

Unlike the recent screed of Davis Guggenheim against organized education in Waiting for Superman, in which teachers' unions could do no right and charter schools no wrong, Ferguson seems more honest in presenting only the facts. As I demanded of him to present the other side of the financial crisis, I couldn't think of what he could say to counter the welter of facts indicting those in front of his camera.

One of the most telling moments is that of Bush's Chief Economic Adviser, Glenn Hubbard: "You have three more minutes. Give it your best shot!" That arrogance informs the documentary and our grim lives for the foreseeable future.

A few days after it won the Oscar I got to see this film and I can see why it won. Not only is it of its time but it goes after the villains of the day and does so in a way that is accessible without being dumbed down and is indignant without ever becoming the sort of "bang the drum" anger of Michael Moore. There were a couple of quotes that hit home with me: "what can we believe in? There is nothing we can trust anymore" said one commentator on the feeling of the public when the collapses started and, in regards the aftermath of it all another said simply "the poorest, as always, pay the most". These two quotes stayed with me because this film is the type of one that will make you angry – angry at injustice, angry at how it could have been allowed to happen and angry that rules that apply to you and I somehow don't apply to those with money and power.

However I didn't feel angry and the reason I didn't is because the film is much better put together than that. Anger comes from emotion and I don't always like it when a documentary starts pulling emotional strings on me. Mostly Inside Job lets the facts speak for themselves and, in doing so it left me quite incredulous, so quite amazed at the scale of things that I couldn't get worked up – it was more a matter of "shock". The saying is safety in numbers and Inside Job very quickly lets us in on why that title was chosen – because there appears to be nobody here who is guilt free. While many of the players understandably refused to be interviewed for this film, Ferguson does make the most of the access he does get and uses these interviews to illustrate key things as the narrator (Matt Damon) unfolds events along the timelines.

So we of course get interviews that fill in the details but more tellingly we get people who unwittingly demonstrate the sort of apathy and self-interest that contributed towards the global crisis. Politics is in the target of course because the names just all seem to change seats every few years and, although one would love to believe that someone coming into politics can cut these conflict of interests, the film shows literally millions of reasons why this is not a realistic thing to expect. The film also adds a new target to the mix by looking at the relationship between the banks and funds and academia. Knowledgeable professors and the like are put on the spot and it is hard not to enjoy it while they squirm, get shifty, shirty or just plain look uncomfortable. I'm not sure if my favourite is the guy paid by Iceland to right a study on their economy (conclusion? It's awesome!) when it is pointed out that the title (Financial Stability in Iceland) is retrospectively titled "Instability" when it comes to his CV listing, or the guy who denies any conflict of interest with people being paid by the organisations they are writing independent studies or when he is asked a hypothetical about medical research & pharmaceutical companies and has to wrestle himself to avoid the phrase "conflict of interest" in his answer.

The footage behind and around the contributions (themselves well shot) is engaging as well and the film does look good. The editing down and use of all the footage is impressive – it makes its point, keeps things punchy without feeling like people are being cut off and only once or twice did I feel that the answers or statements were being perhaps a little unfairly edited. Despite this though all of it is engaging, enthralling and rather sickening. Those hoping for a happy ending should be praised for their naivety but warned of watching this, because this is an inside job – the poor will lose what little they have and the middle majority will continue to look up to those in charge telling us about change and reform while acquiring a greater and greater percentage of the world's wealth.

A very well put together documentary that engaged me to the point that I almost forgot how incredibly depressing it all is.