"Watch ‘Inside Job’ and decide for yourself"

[WhiskeyGirl]

What happened to the market in 2008 was framed in the same manner for most Americans. We were told the unexpected financial collapse was brought on by the sheer weight of homeowners defaulting on payments and preponderance of “bad investments.” As the whole mess unfolded, the message from many politicians and their advisors basically went this way: “Don’t worry, this is complicated stuff and if you just turn over enough tax dollars to bail out some huge banks, insurance and investment companies, we’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. Trust us.”

'They might know how to unwind all of this stuff...'   Main Street is stuck with the debt, rising inflation, declining standard of living, and endless wars...

Meanwhile, GE pays no taxes for years, get's billions in tax benefits/corporate welfare, and apparently wants the laws changed yet again so they can 'bring some money home' and pay no taxes..

Why isn't GE paying taxes?  Why shouldn't GE pay a death tax like Washington  forces on small business?

[/quote]Along the way, the filmmaker takes on the touchy subject of corporate bonuses. “Inside Job” is a startling — and maddening — look at how CEOs of failing firms made hundreds of millions while the housing market, retirement funds and pension programs burned.

The people Ferguson interviewed for the film are not household names, but should remain forever burned in our collective memory. Frederic Mishkin, a former member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, stumbling through his words, and President George W. Bush’s Chief Economic Advisor, Glenn Hubbard, the co-author of many of the tax cuts so many embraced and that helped just a privileged few, stand out.

Most damning of all, Ferguson went where Moore could never tread — he pointed out that President Barack Obama appointed economic advisors like Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner — just two among many — who had authored the very policies that made the collapse of 2008 possible. The people running the country are the very folks making money off the devastating misfortune of countless people.[/quote]

read more here - http://www.galesburg.com/columnists/x1315031097/Tom-Loewy-Watch-Inside-Job-and-decide-for-yourself

[WhiskeyGirl]

Crime pays in the U.S.A.

What I did last night: Watched "Inside Job," the stunning documentary on the financial meltdown and how it could have been avoided. It's about how the little guys took most of the licks. Buy it. Rent it. Borrow it. Something. Watch it. It will make you cry. It will make you scream. It will make you furious. It's the feel-bad hit of the year. There are more villains than you can count. For sheer oiliness and sanctimony, it's hard, however, to top former Bush administration hack, Glenn Hubbard, now back in academia educating another generation of confidence men and women.

read more here - http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2011/03/27/crime-pays-in-the-usa

Movie website - http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/

What Can I Do?

It's a Hard Problem

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, he had a truly unique opportunity to change the history of the United States. With his mandate and a heavily Democratic Congress, he could have restored financial sanity and economic fairness to America. It is a huge tragedy that he failed to seize this opportunity.

read more here - http://www.facebook.com/insidejob#!/insidejob?sk=app_4949752878

Why aren't the big unions protesting against the Federal Reserve?  The Washington insider job rotation?

[WhiskeyGirl]

...And the case is made airtight. Ferguson rightly attacks all of the key players: Paulson, Greenspan, Bernanke, Rubin, Mozilo, Fuld, etc. And he pulls no punches in excoriating Obama's failure to deliver on reform promises: "it's a Wall Street government."

The film's narrated conclusion: For decades, the American financial system was stable and safe. But then something changed. The financial industry turned its back on society, corrupted our political system, and plunged the world economy into crisis. At enormous cost, we've avoided disaster and are recovering, but the men and institutions that caused the crisis are still in power, and that needs to change. They will tell us that we need them, and that what they do is too complicated for us to understand. They will tell us it won't happen again. They will spend billions fighting reform. It won't be easy. But some things are worth fighting for.

http://www.wcvarones.com/2011/03/inside-job.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

from the inside job site

I worked in the insurance industry for several years and the film made the point that you can't buy insurance unless you have an "insurable interest.'  (It is illegal for you to buy insurance on my house.)  Also, most of the characters involved in the credit default swaps use the words "gambling" and "betting" when discussing this activity. So, my question:  How did these things become legal and why isn't the State of New York prosecuting these guys under the anti-gambling and RICO…

read more here - http://www.insidejob.com/