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Inside Job - 2010 film

Written and directed by Academy award winner Charles Ferguson this documentary about the 2008 financial crisis that rocked the world will do the same to your metabolism.

Charles is a thinker, and astute individual with degrees from MIT and Berkeley who has cranked out provocative films.  This one through its poignant narrative and interviews with some of the key members complicit in the making of the crisis will leave you shaking.

Shaking in anger, disbelief and pure fear at the levels of corruption and immorality that plagues the highest echelons of government, academia and finance.  To say that not much has changed since that day of rude awakening is an understatement.

Michael Douglas' character stated way back in 1987 "Greed for lack of a better word is good".  That world view is what propelled America from its status as a colony of 13 states to a vibrant economy that is the world's envy.  However, greed unchecked and unfettered by any form of regulation and oversight and manipulated by a select few can unleash havoc that is equally stunning.  Fabricating financial engineering models versus tangible engineered products like buildings or farming equipment or bridges can only create an asset bubble.  By definition a bubble bursts.

When the party is going strong and the music is playing it is hard for the partygoers to quit.  When the music does stop and there are no chairs left to sit on they experience the hard landing.  Oddly the wealthy and powerful have a safety net and can go on to luxuriate in their backup chairs while those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder find themselves hurting in the behind after the hard fall.  While ignorance is no excuse for bad borrowing habits there is a point in the film that talks to the duplicitous behavior exhibited by Wall Street banks controlling the levers that set policy to favor their profits and therefore bonuses earned.

A chilling but must see documentary that can give 'The Exorcist' a run for its money and prove that truth is scarier than fiction.

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