Last week, I highly recommended watching the 2010 Academy Award winning Best Foreign Language Feature In a Better World, which I would still highly recommend, but I implore all my readers to wait on that film and run don't walk to your nearest video store or streaming venue and watch the 2010 Oscar winning Best Documentary Inside Job. I don't care if you don't care about documentaries or financial industries or the root cause of this horrible world recession we plunged into in 2008 and still haven't recovered from, but if you give a shit about anything, you will watch Charles Ferguson's amazing documentary. Because you need to learn as I did just how freaking fucked we all are. I've read a bunch of books and seen a bunch of movies about the collapse of the financial industry that created the great and never-ending recession but none of them were as clear about who was responsible, about which individual people actually caused this global financial meltdown. And which people remain not only unaccountable for their actions but also remain 100% in power in running our economy at this very moment. This is not a political movie. I would have loved it if all the blame were laid at the feet of the idiotic presidency of George W. Bush, but it's not. These problems started under Reagan, were accelerated under Clinton, and only hit the highest heights of fraud and criminality under Bush the dumber. But the people behind the scenes, the non-politicians wielding all the power behind the presidents and congressmen were not only the same under Clinton and Bush, but they remain in power today under President Obama, Mr. Hope and "Change". Tim Geithner. Hank Paulsen. Larry Summers. Laura Tyson. Ben Bernanke. They all hold major roles in the Obama administration in economic policy making roles. And they were all responsible for the collapse of our economy. Seriously. Not that Alan Greenspan wasn't a huge, huge major cause of the problem -- he's just since retired. And a whole boatload of key Bush advisors are held accountable in the film, some of them on camera (which is awesome), but again, this film is not political. The people who created this problem were regulated by the same people who created the problem (watch the film, you'll see -- Hank Paulsen, head of the Treasury during the end of the Bush presidency was the CEO of Goldman Sachs during the early part of the decade when all these credit derivatives shit began). And they are still in power. It's stunning. It's appalling. It will make you angry and make you want to march on Wall Street today. Which you should. But most of all it will make you informed. And an informed public is our absolute last final hope of saving our system. And our future. Because the people in charge are the same greedy fucks that fucked it all up in the first place. And they are in the process of just doing it again. This must stop now. Please watch this film.
"The documentary — which blasts members of both political parties, including President Barack Obama — is a succinct, breathtaking, hope-draining examination of America's corrupt financial façade." Tom Long, Detroit News
"Despite the potentially brain-numbing complications of his subject, I had no trouble following the sickening spiral of deceit and arrant aggrandizement that led to trillions of dollars of losses and, to date, not a single prison sentence." Peter Rainer, CS Monitor
"Ferguson concludes that irresponsible acts from the rich and elite have gone unpunished, and with a lack of financial reform post-2008 the bust is destined to happen again. This is a compelling documentary that will have you leaving the cinema absolutely seething." -Simon Reynolds, Digital Spy
Let's kill first the banker.
With his professional demeanor.
Let's televise and broadcast the raping of kings.
Let our crowds be fed on tear gas and plate glass.
Because the people united is a wonderful thing
I know that you're dying.
And I know I'm unwell.
And together we sashay
Through variations of hell.
And as you walk through the valleys of fear.
The lure of my bed is ever near.
Don't be afraid.
For the parade will not pass our way.
It's nobler to never get paid,
Then to bank on shit and dismay.
Don't be afraid.
By the way, this song was released in 2000 -- way way way before its time. Just goes to show that artists are oftentimes the most valuable and least respected members of our society. And you can see A Silver Mt. Zion this Thursday in Manhattan where they hopefully will be playing this song in solidarity with the Wall Street protesters. I have a ticket and hope to be there, but I'm traveling for business and I don't know if I'll be back in time. Yes, I'm completely selling out to the man. And I could not be more unhappy about it.