Inside Job

Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments & social hour at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the film.

INSIDE JOB
by Charles Ferguson

This priceless documentary exposes the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of $20 trillion, resulted in 30 million people losing their jobs, their homes, and/or their savings. The film traces the rise of the rogue financial industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It presents a devastating expose of the staggering Wall Street swindle that caused the economic meltdown of 2008.

The interview with Martin Feldstein brought back to mind the hoopla of his appointment as chief economic adviser to President Reagan. The movie points out that Feldstein initiated the financial deregulation follies that led to the looting of the Savings and Loans and culminated with the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, the lead sponsor of which was Senator Phil Gramm. It was truly depressing to see how this massive swindle was pulled off through the collusion of the economic advisers, politicians, high-flown professors of economics with scandalous and highly unethical conflicts-of-interest, investment banks, and ratings agencies. The elements leading to the housing bubble and the financial meltdown were deregulation of the banking industry, securitization of the mortgage industry through the creation of mortgage derivatives, excessive bank leverage creating excessive risk, and failure of the bond rating houses to accurately assess the risk brought about by securitization of subprime mortgages. At the end of the film, Robert Gnaizda lists various groups that should be prosecuted. When asked why this has not been done, he answered: “It’s a Wall Street government!”

Wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street

$5 donations are accepted