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Trailer for “Inside Job”
By JLP | September 1, 2010
I have a feeling that I’m not going to like this movie. It’s supposed to be a documentary but I have a feeling it’s going to be one-sided. I want to watch a documentary based on Thomas Sowell’s “The Housing Boom and Bust.” That would be worth watching.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »
September 1st, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Reminds me of “Smartest Guys in the Room”, which was a good documentary and a great book.
I am a republican, and an unabashed capitalist, but capitalism has a dark side, that will always exist. Those with enough money will figure out a way to game whatever rules and regulations are in place in order to make money. Take the crop circles for example.
I am beginning to think stock market investing will always be a losing proposition to an average joe like me.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:16 pm
1. Wall Street is too short term focused. What I would like to see is lawsuits against the board of directors of these companies who approve the compensation plans. A few of those and we will see a new compensation plan that is stock based and requires five year vesting. At least that will drive Wall Street to think longer term.
2. Wall Street didn’t know what was coming, believe it or not. The reality is most of these guys are idiot salesmen who only pursue the highest commission. The CDO/CDS paid fat commissions so the incentive for quick gains drove behavior. Just read Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short” and you will see that these guys didn’t see it coming. Only a select few did. And, those folks weren’t Wall Street insiders.
3. I am sure this movie will call for more regulation. However, this very event should prove that regulation doesn’t work. Had the regulators done their job, we would have never allowed the banks to take this kind of leverage or for the barrier between depository and investment banks to be torn down. The regulators went along with Wall Street because Wall Street funds the politicians. The recent reform is a joke because this relationship continues. So we want to give more power to regulators who are controlled by Wall Street. Or, the only other argument as to why regulators missed this is because they are too naive or dumb to have recognized the biggest liquidity bubble in the world. Either way, the case for government intervention is weak. Just bring back Glass-Steagall and reduce the leverage of banks, and that is all we need.
4. What should have happened is the government should have taken over the banks, rather than bailing them out. Following Sweden’s lead, the government takes over, writes down assets, and sells the assets off. The banks fail. The losses stay with the stock and bond holders as it should be. Also, the Wall Street employees would have seen their bonuses gone along with their jobs. The end result of this action would be for employees and investors to take a long term view and act more responsibly. Even if employees went to other firms as they would, they would know better than to take excessive risk. The banks would set different compensation levels. As it stands, we just reinforced their behavior by bailing them out.
September 1st, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Amen to posts #1 and #2. Too bad Spitzer isn’t NY Attorney General anymore…
September 1st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
I can’t stand Spitzer. I’m glad he’s gone.
September 1st, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Sanctimonious Client #9… if that isn’t enough to turn anyone’s stomach…. and George Soros grinning like the Cheshire Cat at the culmination of his life work…. cha-ching!
The culprits are on Wall Street, on Capital Hill (Frank and Dodd are no choir boys), at the SEC, in the Treasury and the Fed, at AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but I’d bet this film only tells one side of the story. The punishment in capitalism for bad behavior is bankruptcy and the demise of the wrong doers and the loss of capital for their backers. Bailouts just provide the implicit guarantee to fuel the next bunch of risk takers. I believe the Frank-Dodd bill will do the opposite of what is advertised and institutionalize bailouts for the large firms and their gambling.
September 1st, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Your glad Spitzer is gone? Granted I don’t know much about the man, but I do know that when he was NY AG, he ferreted out a lot of corruption in the mutual fund industry — where select late traders and market timers were profiting at the expense of the other mutual fund holders (fraud).
Aside from his personal life, I think he did a heck of a job as AG. He was doing the job the SEC should have been doing.
September 1st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
BG,
Whatever good Spitzer may have done, he did lots of bad too:
• Threating AIG with an indictment if they didn’t fire Hank Greenberg.
• What he did to Richard Grasso when he was CEO of the NYSE. All claims were dismissed against Grasso but not before he was forced to resign.
Spitzer was/is a punk. What was really bad was everyone was singing his praises for fear that if they didn’t he’d indict them…lol.