Inside Job

In 2008 the world seemed to fall apart as we entered a Global Financial Crisis. Since then we have seen a few films about the crisis, but none so succinct as this.

I think I'm going to have to stop watching documentaries. They just make me so depressed. Most reveal the bad side of humanity and this case the sheer stupidity of what we think of as smart men. I think it goes to show how short sighted we are as a society. The GFC seems to come down to a group of men who made money on some stupid decisions without realising the long term ramifications. They also relied on people whose advice was not so reliable. The great thing is that director Charles Ferguson has managed to make all this very entertaining and fairly easy to understand. There were some things I did not quite grasp but on the whole I did know what was going on. There are lots of graphs and diagrams which help and the narration by Matt Damon is in clear and simple terms. What it also shows you is the apathy of society. One other thing the film clearly explains is how this could have been prevented or solved easily if the government was more actively involved. Much like most powerful groups like oil and tobacco they have an extremely huge amount of power in the US government. Which is why no one was held accountable for what happened. Most of the people who cause the disaster were rewarded for their stupidity and kept their million dollar bonuses despite stuffing up their companies. The US people have not done anything about it which means their represented officials keep getting paid by these powerful lobby groups to keep doing bad things. What does it take for people to make a stand?

While a degree in economics would help to understand this film better it is not a requirement. A good and clear way of explaining what happened to most of the global economies.