I just saw the movie Inside Job. This may be old hat to many of you, but if you haven't seen the movie and you want to see the scale of the credit swap scam and the mechanics of the scam perpetrated by the investment bankers and the government, you'll get the picture in extraordinary detail. The numbers are astronomical. That being said, from my personal conservative viewpoint, their are some points of conflict I'm still mulling over. It's kind of like the insiders dumping on the insiders, dumping on the insiders, dumping on the insiders --- all narated by Matt Damon. The movie trashes Clinton, Bush, Obama, Geitner, Bernanke, Greenspan, the Fed, the Treasury Department, the Council of Economic Advisors, the SEC, the ratings agencies, the leading Ivy League economists, Goldman et. al., AIG, the investment bankers and a host of other lessor players. The graft, payoffs, dope usage, trysts, and hypocrasy are astounding. (Parenthetically, I originally thought Goldman would skate on criminal charges, but now I'm not so sure). The only group it really doesn't take to task is the US Congress. Maybe that's the point of all this. It was interesting to see Harvard professors and Fed governors, when pushed on ethics violations and conflicts of interest go humina, humina, humina. (The leading economists from our most prestigious schools are all getting paid off. It's amazing how many served on boards of investment banking operations that perpetrated the scam). From this, you got the impression they can't even talk.. One Harvard economics professor throws a hissy fit which is interesting. Apparently, they're all in on the take. The movie has a range of interviews and commentators which strangely include Soros, who's been funding a whole host of crumbbums, Strauss-Kahn (pre-arrest), Spitzer (pre-arrest) and of all people Barney Frank, who's responsible for acceleration of the mortgage debacle. They all take a "holier than thou" sort of attitude. This is the part of the movie that seems inconsistent in my mind. One point that really caught my attention. According to the movie, the investment banker's lobbyist group has 5,000 lobbyists. That's about ten for every person in the US House. Also, according to the movie they contributed $5 billion to Congressional campaign funds. Divide that by 480 reps and 100 senators. Question becomes, who isn't in on the take. Lastly, there is a small segment that attacks the tax cuts of the Bush administration. There's some misleading errors in the way they're presented and the incentive for small business is completely ignored. Other than this, if you haven't seen this it's worth viewing. The numbers will certainly get your attention. AHF |
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