Inside Job by Charles H Ferguson- A Critical Analysis - Movie Review Example

of the of the Concerned 7 July Inside Job- A Critical Analysis In the documentary Inside Job directed by Charles H Ferguson, the director tends to do away with the secrecy and amorphousness associated with the economic meltdown of 2008 that engulfed within its ambit not only the US economy, but also the largely interconnected world economy. The pivotal strategy of Ferguson relies on a wide array of interviews tagged to an in depth and razor sharp research, and hence the film manages to pass by the essential financial jargon associated with the topic, to facilitate outcomes that are realistic and at the same time shocking. The crux of the film happens to be intertwined around two central themes that are the deregulation of the financial framework in the United States of America and the glaring inequity that has been unleashed in the nation by the people controlling the things at the Wall Street. The film in its attempt to unravel the financial meltdown tends to engage with a large array of interviewees as Congressmen, hedge fund managers, the Chairman f the Federal Reserve, the academicians serving in the business schools and the Justice Department bureaucracy. The movie makes an engrossing and shocking search into the minds and methods of the insiders that brought the world economy to its knees. The levels of immorality and greed brought to the surface by the documentary not only strongly shakes the audience confidence, but also manages to churn out a reaction that is akin to a strong revulsion for the moral and ethical depravity of the people that in a way managed and orchestrated this financial disaster. While watching the documentary the audience could distinctly perceive the anger and abhorrence marking the revelations being made by the director. The film to some extent attempts a historical perspective of the early 20th century economic policies to arrive at the very genesis of the policies that led to the economic meltdown of 2008. In that context Ferguson clearly points towards a close collusion between the financial big wigs, the statesmen and the academicians. Ferguson takes the audience from the deregulation of the financial markets in the 80s and the 90s and gradually moves on to the later financial disasters and debaucheries like the dot.com crash of 2001 to the fall of Bear Stearns so as to clearly demarcate as to how a systematic and persistent collusion between the politicians, corporate world and academicians gave way to an economic system that was not only lop sided and unjust, but that was also open to corruption, manipulation and inside wrong doing. Ferguson argues that the government actually awarded the academicians who were pro-regulation with fat jobs, while arrogantly ignoring their peers who vociferously pointed out the inequities and flaws in the framework towards which the financial markets were being led to. Yet, the documentary also bemoans the irony of the fact that the present statesmen are still being guided and led by the financial minds that supported and aided Bush. Many a times, while delving on the working of the Wall Street, the man on the road tends to think that one knows everything that needs to be known about this national institution. However, when one takes into consideration the muck and the filth raked out by the Inside Job, one is simply taken aback by the enormity of this behemoth conspiracy. The film systematically does away with the varied peels of the American economic façade to bring to fore the financial machinations that rob the common man of one’s hard earned money, all in the name of free market and free enterprise. And the good thing is that the film enhances the quality of insight of the uninformed audience by succinctly and lucidly explaining the things like ‘credit default swaps’. The film allows for an informed understanding of the hackneyed reality that the rich are getting richer, that the financial wherewithal of the world is concentrated and centralized into the hands of the few and the financial inequities across the social strata are increasing at an alarming pace. The man on the road may be tentatively aware of this fact, yet, the film brings in a measure of astuteness and evidence into this tentative realization. The most interesting thing about the film is that irrespective of the damage control and face saving that followed economic meltdown, Ferguson manages to pin point the fact that how the financial crash ushered in the rot and indiscipline into the discipline of economics. It explains as to how some of the most celebrated economists in the American universities were taken on their pay rolls by the banks and financial institutions to cull out support for an unprecedented and ruthless deregulation of the financial markets. The hallmark of the movie is that Ferguson has also interviewed many of these unsuspecting economists who believed that they will stand totally morally absolved of this filth and will be consulted in the nature of cynical and uninterested eggheads. In that context it is really heartening to witness the sense of shock and concern profusely evinced by them as they wake up to the realization that they themselves are being placed in the dock. This aptly brings out the meaning of the title Inside Job. What Ferguson tends to convey is that the 2008 crash had valid reasons and pre-meditated intentions behind them and that the politicians, academicians and the corporate bosses happened to be hand in glove with each other. The other glaring revelation that Ferguson makes is as to how the Wall Street bosses ended up being rich after the crash as they appointed their chosen heads on the boards who allowed them to leave with hefty benefits accrued from the money being pumped by the government into the financial system. The arbitrariness and arrogance of the bankers is accompanied with a priestly sense of propriety and decorum, sans any remorse, moral pangs or ethical dilemmas. At the very start of the film, Ferguson presents the financial markets in Iceland as a test case and explains as to how their bankers got greedy and corrupt and jeopardized the entire economy of this hitherto unblemished nation. Yet, the thing is that the big nations like the US and the UK failed to take heed from the example of Iceland and proceeded to make the same mistakes that could have been readily avoided had there been more honest and upright people controlling the things. Ferguson narrates a sad and shocking tail of the salient Western economies that though being based on the solid fundamentals of industrial growth and thrift entered an era of casino capitalism relying solely on raw speculation and shacking health of its stock markets. Though there is no dearth of critics who will declare the case being made by Ferguson in Inside Job as being farfetched and fictional, yet through his interviews, research and the elucidation of the financial jargon accompanying a topic of this nature, Ferguson is able to bring in a sense of context in the documentary, in the light of which the common audience are able to make a sense of things for themselves. The crux of Inside Job is that it tends to unravel the mindboggling truth on which the foundations of the 2008 meltdown were laid. This eye opening documentary seems to be biased towards none and is almost factually critical of the role being played by each loop of the American financial framework into bringing the 2008 crash. Read More