Inside Job Movie Review

Mr. Ethics himself, Elliot Spitzer is one of those interviewed who speaks out against deregulation and the shady dealings of financial executives.

When Charles Ferguson won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for his film Inside Job, he deplored the fact that not a single financial executive has gone to jail for the financial catastrophe caused by the “fraud” they committed. Before he made that statement, I would have been willing to accept Inside Job as an expose of the financial industry and what caused the complete and total meltdown of the world financial system. That he believes someone should go to jail for what happened suggests his film is actually an indictment seeking blood.

Yes, the signs are there that Ferguson has an agenda, that he’s looking to bring down the bigwigs, most of whom refused to participate in the film. But what I would like to ask Ferguson is, “Who do you think should be in jail and what exactly should the charges be?” To be fair, this point is never raised in the film itself. Being angry about a terrible global financial crisis that was the result of greed (on the part of a lot more than financial executives, I might add) is justified, and demanding they lose their jobs and not receive their bonuses would be a good start to both punishing them and alleviating the public animosity. But fraud is a serious charge and Ferguson never makes the case in his film that anything illegal was done.

Cohn says the rich are morally obliged to share their good fortune

Yeah, seriously. Jonathan Cohn makes the rather offensive argument in The New Republic that it's not only fair to tax the wealthy at significantly higher rates than everyone else, but that it's the morally right thing to do.

His argument follows on from the book Unjust Deserts by Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly which makes the claim that luck is the driving force behind any individual's wealth. Not just luck in being a successful entrepreneur or businessman, but historical luck - being born into the right place at the right time. All success builds off the previous innovation of entrepreneurs and inventors throughout history, so without their work, the modern entrepreneur wouldn't be successful. Bill Gates would have been nowhere without electricity, for example. Therefore the wealthy have an obligation to repay a debt to society through higher taxes.

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Look how pretty my city is with all those protesting government workers who want the country to pull through a severe economic crisis but are completely unwilling to make any sacrifices on their own part.

Everyone wants Zapatero to "do something" about the crisis. But if that means cutting salaries, no thank you. If that means cutting entitlements (some of which are absolute bullshit), no thank you.

When the masses don't actually understand fiscal policy this is the reaction when the shit hits the fan. If there's no money why can't they just print more? You can bet they would if they were still using the peseta around here.

Glad I've just recently invested in some gold wedding bands.