Yesterday, with an audience of about 12 other concerned citizens, I saw Inside Job, the talking-heads documentary about the financial crisis. To those following the news, there won't be any surprises here, though there are some delightful movements. John Campbell, chair of Harvard's Department of Economics, proves unable to form a sentence when asked about ethics. Glenn Hubbard, Dean of the Columbia Business School, displays shameless arrogance. I was so focused on not chuckling everytime I saw Eliot Spitzer on screen that I missed whatever he had to say. I believe I got the point of the graphic that charts diverging salaries over time for "Bankers" & "Everyone Else." I also enjoyed the beautiful opening footage of Iceland. The film ends a bit weakly, though, with only a vague call to action.
Produced, Written, and Directed by Charles Ferguson
4 comments:
I have never tried to be an apologist where Spitzer is concerned, and I tend to shy away from conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, when we examine the time-line, we see that Spitzer had built up enough of a case to move in for the kill against that financial elite targeted by this film. I am thus willing to entertain the case that those in power realized that he had to be stopped "by any means necessary;" and it was one of those ironies of Fate that Spitzer himself provided the means. I developed this further in a blog post I wrote last April (possible when this film was being edited.
Spitzer is a dope. His track record is awful as an AG as his actions were brought to garner publicuty or worse. His suit against AIG had nothing to do with what caused AIG to crash and their activities persisted right under his nose. He and Frank as corrupt as they are were used in the film because there were not many other people willing to talk.
I thought it kind of surprising that Spizter would be OK with appearing in this film. One assumes that he just can't resist the publicity.
I just heard on NPR that there is a new documentary by Alex Gibney called Client 9 about the Spitzer prostitution scandal. Mr. Spitzer appears on camera as well, & I am sure I will enjoy his performance here too.
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