Too big to fail - Movie Review Example

Full Too Big to Fail (A film review and summary) 14 July The of this television drama movie is “Too Big to Fail” and details all the steps that were taken to save the American financial system during the height of the sub-prime housing mortgage crisis. The title derives from the idea that some banks and other financial institutions are just simply too big (to be allowed to fail) and the government must step in and provide some form of relief or bailout to save the entire financial and banking system from a total collapse which can have very serious consequences for the economy and the country.

The television movie was based on a book by Andrew Ross Sorkin entitled Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of how Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves. In essence, the book and the movie discussed the issue of how the banks were careless in their lending practices leading to accumulation of worthless and toxic paper assets (Sorkin 2) which threatened their viability but are now in a bind expecting government to help them out somehow through a bailout, arguing they are too big to fail without seriously affecting the entire banking system (HBO, 2014).

Their argument is a form of blackmail to government to act decisively soon: help us or clean up the entire mess. The movie revolves around the two old and venerable investment banks of Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers; the former found a white knight savior in Bank of America but Lehman Brothers was more problematic to solve. Two issues are paramount in this movie that require some ethical thinking: should banks engage in risky lending practices (moral hazard) that results in a failure of free market capitalism and secondly, if taxpayers money should be used to benefit a few people (are tax dollars used wisely or not?

and are bailouts helpful or not?). Easy credit was the cause of the 2008 financial crisis but cutting off credit into a crunch can worsen the recession into possibly a new depression like in 1929 (Kinsley, para. 4). Works CitedHome Box Office. “HBO Films: Too Big to Fail.” HBO, 2011. Web. 14 July 2014. .Kinsley, Michael. “Economic Crisis Unfurls in Hushed Suspense.” The New York Times, 22 May 2011. Web. 14 July 2014. .Sorkin, Andrew Ross. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of how Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves.

New York, NY, USA: Penguin Books, 2010. Print.Due: July 14, 2014 @ 6:10 p.m.