Inside Job
If anyone still had any doubts about the breadth and depth of the 2008 financial crisis and the Wall Street corruption that led to it, look no further than Charles Ferguson’s “Inside Job.” While Michael Moore took his typically muckraking and humanistic approach to the crisis with “Capitolism: A Love Story,” “Inside Job” is a truly incendiary look at the causes of the financial crisis. It’s pretty difficult stuff to understand; thankfully, Rolling Stone magazine has been keeping me abreast on this crisis for the past couple of years, so I had a primer going in. The rest of you, hold on to your hats.
Narrated by Matt Damon, Furgeson is far from subtle in some of his accusations, but there’s not really a reason for him to be. Whether it’s the discussion of derivative devices like CDOs and Credit Default Swaps that are bet on like sporting events, the reversal of policies and laws in place since the Great Depression that resulted in “Too Big to Fail” mega-corporations, the “too cozy” relationship between Wall Street lobbyists and Washington politicos that resulted in the unpopular “bailout” of the financial industry, or the outright corruption (and narcissistic carelessness) of the major players who end up with massive compensation packages even when their firms go belly-up, Furgeson paints a portrait of an industry that is unfeeling to the real concerns of everyday Americans and a culture of swinging-dick politics “as usual” that requires bold action to change. Obama and Co. have started on the path, but as the movie makes plain, more must be done if we are to fend off further ruin. Hopefully enough people will see “Inside Job” and be inspired to action.
