[Solomon]

"Inside Job".
Anyone seen this documentary?
Any good?

Quote

Narrated by Matt Damon, "Inside Job" is about the global financial meltdown of 2008. Promotional materials say it traces "the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia."

Here's the linky

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Quote

Narrated by Matt Damon, "Inside Job" is about the global financial meltdown of 2008. Promotional materials say it traces "the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia."

A reasonable analysis on where the lowest echelons sit.

Quote

If you actually adjust for the fact that the labour force participation rate has plunged this cycle to a 27-year low the unemployment would be sitting at 12% today.

Quote

You would think that this state of affairs would be a major political scandal of the first order. But strangely, no. The unemployment problem has been almost totally ignored by large segments of the mainstream media. Instead, the current political debate is completely dominated by hysteria about the deficit and the idea that massive cuts to government spending and social services (which will exacerbate the unemployment problem) are needed right now.

Why are both political parties in the US so complacent in the face of the unemployment disaster?

Research by the political economist Larry Bartels may shed some light on this. After analyzing US senators’ voting patterns in recent decades, Bartels came to the conclusion that that while US politicians are highly responsive to the concerns of affluent voters and somewhat responsive to the middle class, they are completely unresponsive to the concerns of the bottom third of the income distribution.

Quote

In other words, the growing role of money in US politics (and an increasingly subservient media) has massively skewed the US policy-making process in favor of the rich. This is how we get the completely weird state of affairs where massive tax cuts for the affluent and bailouts for bankers pass through the political process with little serious debate, but all of a sudden, the country is in an uproar about “overpaid” public school teachers who are lucky to make $50,000 a year (click here for a very amusing take on this from John Stewart).

This is not a left versus right issue. Current events in the Middle East show what can happen when a large portion of the population feels it is completely disenfranchised from the political process.

Rising inequality and unemployment in the US are a threat to economic and social stability. Politicians in both parties are ignoring this one at their peril.

http://macrobusiness...ilent-disaster/

[yoda]

Solomon, on 04 March 2011 - 01:25 AM, said:

"Inside Job".
Anyone seen this documentary?
Any good?

Here's the linky

Yes, saw it on a plane trip recently. Worth watching. Amazing the corruption and vested interest / conflict of interest.
Convinced me even further that Australia is about to have a major house price crash.
Was sitting next to a lass from Florida, what she described over there and how everything developed and played out sounds exactly like what has been happening in Australia. People living beyond their means, people using their credit cards like there is no tomorrow, people taking no consideration on how they will pay back their debts.
We are simply 2-3 years behind the US in this cycle.
Definitely not going to buy until we get close to 50% drops.

[sydney3000]

yoda, on 05 March 2011 - 09:45 PM, said:

We are simply 2-3 years behind the US in this cycle.

Australia is behind in every cycle. Internet, online shopping, dark pools, transport, alternative energy, water recycling, ...

The positive thing is that once Australia has stuffed up the solutions have already been tried and tested. ZIRP has been proven to have no benefits and the RBA will not use it.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Solomon, on 04 March 2011 - 01:25 AM, said:

"Inside Job".
Anyone seen this documentary?
Any good?

Here's the linky

Here is the doco online (well worth 2 hours of your time)...

Inside Job (2010)

Did anyone else feel really F*CKING angry after watching?

[ummester]

It was a good doco - and we Aussies are slow on the uptake:)

[jas25t]

watched it last night.

very clear and showed some good accounts.

[Mr Medved]

To be honest I didn't learn much I didn't already know, but I suspect most people in Australia would be oblivious to the content presented.

[itching]

I won tickets to see the preview in Adelaide and most people still seemed oblivious after they watched it. Most people were talking about Matt Damon rather then the content of the movie afterwards.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

itching, on 15 March 2011 - 04:59 AM, said:

I won tickets to see the preview in Adelaide and most people still seemed oblivious after they watched it. Most people were talking about Matt Damon rather then the content of the movie afterwards.

Most I met got incandescent in anger. But they watched by choice. I suppose if you dont have a brain but have a 10K credit card limit and 'its different here' its rather benign.