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INSIDE JOB (2010)

"Misleading Half Truths"

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What You Need To Know:

INSIDE JOB is a well made, sometimes enlightening documentary about what caused the economic crisis in 2008. However, it only tells half the story. The movie lays nearly the whole blame on deregulation and business greed. In supporting this thesis, it concentrates on attacking executives at the top investment banking, insurance and rating companies on Wall Street. It also attacks allegedly corrupt politicians, regulators and economics professors. Included are the economic advisors that Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and even Obama appointed, many of who hail from large investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. The last two Treasury Secretaries, for instance, worked at Goldman Sachs.

INSIDE JOB certainly exposes the high salaries of these incompetent players, but it presents a leftist, anti-capitalist view that’s false. It wasn’t government deregulation that was the root cause of the 2008 fiscal crisis. In reality, the instigating factors were government regulation of the housing market, government promotion of risky housing loans, lax monetary policy by the Federal Reserve (a government created and regulated institution), and left-wing politicians running Congress, such as Representative Barney Frank. Please beware of leftwing documentaries like INSIDE JOB.

Content:

(HHH, AcapAcapAcap, B, L, V, S, A, DD, MMM) Very strong biased, humanist left-wing worldview promoting big government regulations with very strong anti-capitalist elements, but not always on the surface, that distorts a major issue affecting almost everyone, with some light moral elements against greed, hedonism and materialism but not with an intelligent, rational or biblical theology or sociopolitical philosophy behind it; six obscenities and two light profanities; some light violence as people protest and large hill slides into river; references to prostitution; no nudity but female cleavage of one prostitute being interviewed; brief light references to alcohol; no smoking but light references to using illegal drugs and laundering drug money; and, propaganda techniques used to distort a major issue to serve a bankrupt left-wing philosophy, greed and corruption are rebuked but to serve an ideological purpose that doesn’t fit the facts and tells misleading half-truths, and at least one expert’s research is misrepresented to make a conclusion that is opposite of what the expert himself actually concluded.

More Detail:

INSIDE JOB is a well made, sometimes enlightening and informative documentary about what caused the housing and financial crisis in 2008, but it only tells half the story. Although it doesn’t let all Democratic Party leaders, including President Obama, off the hook, it’s still a left wing view that supports big government and says nothing about the shady involvement of liberal Congressional leaders like Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Barney Frank, who were also directly involved in creating the crisis. For example, it only serves up softball questions for Frank, completely neglecting to discuss his very public support of the government-sponsored housing institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And, Dodd and Schumer are nowhere to be found.

Narrated by Hollywood leftist Matt Damon, who should know better, the movie opens by taking a look at Iceland’s complete financial collapse because of the global housing and banking crisis. Right off the bat, it lays the blame on the government’s alleged “deregulation” of the banking industry. Apparently, this led to Iceland’s banks becoming involved in too many risky loans.

Then, without mentioning the government’s printing of money that exacerbated the crisis in the 12 months leading up to Sept. 2008, the movie shifts to the United States in the 1980s, talking about the U.S. government’s own partial deregulation of the banking industry, which began during Ronald Reagan. Of course, this conveniently ignores President Jimmy Carter’s regulation of the housing industry before Reagan, or the federal government’s formation and reorganizations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 1938 and 1980, before Reagan.

The movie proceeds to argue that the banking industry’s deregulation led to the formation of huge investment banks (like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase) and large firms that insured the banks’ holdings (like AIG). Meanwhile, the federal government also wasn’t doing much regulation of companies like Moody’s and Standard & Poors, who gave good AAA and AA ratings to some of the worst, most unstable loans made and sold by the investment banks.

While detailing all this very effectively, the documentary also begrudges the very high salaries that the top executives at these companies earned and details their connection to the Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. For example, major treasury secretaries and other regulatory officials appointed by these presidents have come from Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Of course, recent news reports in January 2011 show that Obama is appointing J.P. Morgan executive, and Chicago politico, William Daley, as his new Chief of Staff. The movie also relates how this high executive compensation led many banking executives to cavort with prostitutes, buy gratuitous luxury items like multiple jets, and, in some cases, launder money for drug dealers, Iran’s nuclear program or the Pinochet government in Chile. (Does anyone remember that government power corrupts!)

After castigating President Obama’s own continued participation in the corrupt deregulation, the documentary turns its attention to leading economic professors at influential schools like Harvard and Columbia University. It shows that these professors have gotten tons of money from the banking and housing industries, but always fail to mention that fact when they write glowing reports regarding these industries. Several of the professors are shown squirming in their chairs as the director, Charles Ferguson, questions them about this.

Since all the corruption seems to be continuing under President Obama, the movie offers little hope to the viewer that things will change. In fact, it claims that Obama’s ties to the banking and housing industries led to a watered-down bill regulating Wall Street this past summer.

INSIDE JOB focuses on the banking and financial industry, and its connection to the housing bubble that helped create the crisis in Sept. 2008. However, it skips over the huge role that the government-created institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in the crisis, including all the new government laws and regulations on housing and housing loans. In doing so, it lets leading Capitol Hill Democrats like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank (who encouraged bad housing loans and publicly and vociferously defended the economic stability Fannie and Freddie), off the hook.

Also, as Don Peppers notes in “Did Deregulation Cause the Financial Crisis?” <http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2008/10/did_deregulation_cause_the_fin.html>, the movie fails to mention the infamous “mark to market” regulation that forced investment firms to take huge paper losses on their portfolios of bad loans. Furthermore, although the movie blames Federal Reserve leaders like Ben Bernanke for not looking out for the country’s interest, it fails to mention that the Federal Reserve is actually a big government institution that regulates the whole economy! And, it doesn’t even mention the incredibly low interest rates created by the Federal Reserve after 9/11 that, along with the socialist housing policies of left-wing politicians like Barney Frank, Jimmy Carter, newly elected New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Barack Obama, encouraged all the bad housing loans!!! After all, the politicians not only got political contributions from big investment banks like Goldman Sachs, they also got contributions from Fannie and Freddie as well as contributions from liberal and leftist groups supporting risky housing loans like Big Labor and the National Urban League.

One of the experts the movie consults to unravel the banking/financial debacle is Professor Raghuram Rajan of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Rajan wrote a 2005 paper warning about the upcoming meltdown and has written a book about it, called FAULT LINES. Larry Summers, recently President Obama’s chief economics advisor, once vociferously rejected Rajan’s thesis. What INSIDE JOB doesn’t tell viewers, however, is that Rajan also believes that “the political push for easy housing credit in the United States and the lax monetary policy [by the Federal Reserve, an institution created by big government in collusion with large banks] in the years 2003-2005” were major contributors to the crisis, if not the instigating factors (see “Misdirected Outrage” by Gene Epstein, Barrons, Oct. 23, 2010, http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904502004575562621077193024.html). By misrepresenting Rajan, the filmmakers unintentionally reveal how movies can be edited to make people conclude one thing when the exact opposite is most likely the case. This example is so egregious that they put their WHOLE case in grave doubt! Even if some of what they say is true.

Thus, INSIDE JOB fails to attack the real root cause of the problem – incestuous government interference in and regulation of business, including the banking and housing industries. Instead, it falsely lays the whole blame on deregulation and capitalist greed. In reality, government interference and regulation has virtually destroyed the American automobile and steel industries. And, in 2008, it virtually destroyed the banking and housing industries and, along with it, the global economy.

The government has a valid and important role as an impartial referee. This role is squandered when the government joins one of the teams on the field. Regrettably, this movie seems to think, just as the socialists do, that the government should play on both teams.

Please don’t buy the lie of left-wing media’s hype of movies and documentaries such as INSIDE JOB. If a movie’s apparent left-wing viewpoint sounds biased and fishy, it probably is.

INSIDE JOB also contains some foul language and references to prostitution and illegal drugs.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.