[Peace-discuss] "Inside Job" -- at the Art today (2:30/5pm/7:30) and Thursday (7:30)

[Stuart Levy]

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 11:18:20AM -0500, David Johnson wrote:
> " the regrettable-but-necessary multi-trillion dollar bailout
> that followed it "
>
> Absolutely a GREAT film Stuart !
>
> I rented it last week from the Champaign Library, and I have to say that it 
> is not only great for it's info but is also one of the best produced 
> documentaries that I have ever seen.
>
> I however must beg to differ with your above statement about the bailout.

oh -- I hoped it would be clear, though e-mailed words too often aren't --
calling the bailout "regrettable but necessary" was meant to be ironic!
As in the wars, where we regret the necessity of destroying villages
in order to save them...  

And, to be clear(er) again: Inside Job certainly doesn't take the view
that the bailout had to be done in the way it was.  E.g. they're careful
to point out that Hank Paulson, recently of Goldman Sachs, was among those
who forced AIG to pay 100% of the value of its credit-default swaps --
including $14B to Goldman Sachs itself -- even though the CDS investors
could have been expected to take some losses (and also, as Dean Baker
pointed out at the time, that many of the insured bonds hadn't even
defaulted at the time and presumably wouldn't).  Of course the money
for this came directly from the gov't bailout of AIG bailout -- which would have bee

Some tricks they missed:  yes, it would have been good if this film had
said more about other routes we could have followed at the time of the
crash, like nationalizing the banks, as you say.  And I *wish* they had included
Alan Greenspan's admission before Congress that his free-market ideology
had failed him.


> The government should have taken direct control and management over all the 
> banks that were in financial trouble and AIG Insurance as well as Moody's 
> and the other rating agencies that made the swindle possible.
> They then should have disected all of the toxic assets from the good assets 
> and let the rest fail with the only guarantee of financial support ( 
> bail-out ) given to ; depositers, pension funds, and home owners. AND.... 
> There should have been hundreds if not thousands of criminal investigations 
> and convictions with jail time for those responsible for the fraud and 
> damage to the economy.

Yes!

> The bail-out of GM is another case in point. The same management structure 
> was left in place. None of GM's foreign assets were included in the 
> equation as to rather or not GM was broke, and the Auto Workers had to pay 
> for the financial problems that they did not create.
> Instead, All of GM's assets should have been seized ( including the foreign 
> assets ) and GM should have been made a worker owned cooperative with 
> government loans and supervision for a few years until the company was 
> stable.
>
> David J.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Levy" <slevy at ncsa.illinois.edu>
> To: <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2011 10:40 AM
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Inside Job" -- at the Art today (2:30/5pm/7:30) 
> and Thursday (7:30)
>
>
>> There's a pretty good film, "Inside Job", about the engineering
>> of the bubble that led to the 2008 financial collapse,
>> the regrettable-but-necessary multi-trillion dollar bailout
>> that followed it, the corruption of the field of economics, etc.
>>
>> It's at the C-U Art Theater today (2:30, 5pm, 7:30) and Thursday (7:30),
>> though not on Mon-Wed.  Karen and I saw it yesterday.  Much of the 
>> material
>> will be familiar to peace-discuss readers, but it's well presented,
>> and includes interviews with some key people (though many of those
>> refused to be interviewed - a whole section of the film web site,
>> insidejobfilm.com, is devoted to those who declined, several of whom
>> are "serving" in the current Administration).
>>
>> Opens with a review of the bubble-and-collapse in the Iceland banks,
>> which was just in the news yesterday as the Icelandic people voted
>> not to take on the burden of debt those banks had spun up before 
>> collapsing.
>>
>> Occasionally hilarious, as when Rep. Michael Capuano (MA),
>> at a hearing where a bunch of principal banksters were testifying,
>> said something like this:  "You say you're very sorry, and you
>> won't do this again.  Well, several of my constituents have
>> robbed several of your banks.  They too say they're very sorry,
>> and that they won't do it again either."
>>
>> Of course, the bank robbers are in prison, and -- as the film points
>> out -- there has been not a single criminal prosecution of the firms
>> involved in the collapse.
>>
>> Hope you can see this film.
>>
>> The web site -- insidejobfilm.com -- is well worth perusing too.
>>
>> Includes a study guide aimed at classroom use,
>>    http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/_pdf/InsideJob_StudyGuide.pdf
>>
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