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David Fitzsimmons | trickling down / media.caglecartoons.com

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Bill Moyers | 6 Movies You Have to See About the Financial Crisis

  • Here are some important movies and documentaries that try to make sense of the financial collapse.
  • Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown

Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company / AlterNet

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Lydia Howell


If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button above—so we can bring you more just like it.

Given a theme as dramatic and consequential as America’s financial collapse, many filmmakers have risen to the challenge of going behind the headlines to tell important stories and make critical points that need to be shared if we’re to learn anything from the crisis. Below are some of those important movies and documentaries. Please share your own favorite financial-themed films in the comments below.

Margin Call (2011)
Margin Call, directed by J.C. Chandor, focuses on crises of conscience — and lack thereof — behind investment banking and the financial meltdown. Chandor’s original screenplay is up for an Academy Award.

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Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown, Jonathan Zap, Reality Sandwich

  • Many of the thought patterns and animal spirits driving economic events are generated by psychopaths and situational pyshopaths, and to prevent another such economic catastrophe we must take this into account as we design regulations, checks and balances.
  • Psychpaths Among Us

 

Section(s): 

Special Project | America's Financial Crisis: Week of February 5

5 New Items including:

  • Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth
  • The vulture capitalist feeding cycle
  • Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners
  • Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown
  • Paul Krugman | The Austerity Debacle

David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest

Ted Rall

Selling the ‘Supply-Side’ Myth, Robert Parry, Consortium News

  • Any rational assessment of America’s economic troubles would identify Ronald Reagan’s reckless “supply-side” economics as a chief culprit, but that hasn’t stopped Republican presidential hopefuls, led by Newt Gingrich, from selling this discredited theory to a gullible GOP base.
  • Reagan Insider Stockman: 'GOP Destroyed US Economy'

The vulture capitalist feeding cycle, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

  • Rachel Maddow describes Mitt Romney's extreme wealth and shares a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that explains how Mitt Romney made his fortune.
  • Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown

Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners, Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica and Chris Arnold, NPR News

  • The taxpayer-owned mortgage giant made investments that profited if borrowers stayed stuck in high-interest loans while making it harder for them to get out of those loans.
  • Attorneys General, Frustrated With National Foreclosure Settlement, Consider Alternate Course


Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown, Jonathan Zap, Reality Sandwich

  • Many of the thought patterns and animal spirits driving economic events are generated by psychopaths and situational pyshopaths, and to prevent another such economic catastrophe we must take this into account as we design regulations, checks and balances.
  • Psychpaths Among Us

Paul Krugman | The Austerity Debacle, Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

  • The austerity doctrine that has dominated elite policy discussion both in Europe and, to a large extent, in the United States for the past two years is a stunning failure of policy.
  • No One Understands Debt
  • World economy set for another major downturn
     
Section(s): 

Paul Krugman | The Austerity Debacle

  • The austerity doctrine that has dominated elite policy discussion both in Europe and, to a large extent, in the United States for the past two years is a stunning failure of policy.
  • Paul Krugman | Nobody Understands Debt
  • World economy set for another major downturn

Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button in the above right-hand corner—so we can bring you more just like it.    

Last week (Jan 22-28) the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a British think tank, released a startling chart comparing the current slump with past recessions and recoveries. It turns out that by one important measure — changes in real G.D.P. since the recession began — Britain is doing worse this time than it did during the Great Depression. Four years into the Depression, British G.D.P. had regained its previous peak; four years after the Great Recession began, Britain is nowhere close to regaining its lost ground.

Nor is Britain unique. Italy is also doing worse than it did in the 1930s — and with Spain clearly headed for a double-dip recession, that makes three of Europe’s big five economies members of the worse-than club. Yes, there are some caveats and complications. But this nonetheless represents a stunning failure of policy.

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Paul Krugman | Nobody Understands Debt,  Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

  • When people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they're talking about - and the people who talk the most understand the least.
  • The economic “experts” on whom much of Congress relies have been repeatedly, utterly wrong about the short-run effects of budget deficits.
  • World economy set for another major downturn
  • All the GOP's Gekkos
     

World economy set for another major downturn, Nick Beams, World Socialist Website

  • Despite the trillions of dollars handed out to the banks and financial institutions over the past three years by governments around the world, nothing has been resolved.
  • Who Will Fix the Economy?
     
Section(s): 

Special Project | America's Financial Crisis: Week of January 29

6 New Items including:

  • Paul Krugman | Nobody Understands Debt
  • World economy set for another major downturn
  • Who Will Fix the Economy?
  • Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity
  • Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity
  • Paul Krugman | All the GOP's Gekkos

David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest

John Darkow

Paul Krugman | Nobody Understands Debt, Paul Krugman, New York Times

  • When people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they're talking about - and the people who talk the most understand the least.
  • The economic “experts” on whom much of Congress relies have been repeatedly, utterly wrong about the short-run effects of budget deficits.
  • World economy set for another major downturn
  • All the GOP's Gekkos

World economy set for another major downturn, Nick Beams, World Socialist Website

  • Despite the trillions of dollars handed out to the banks and financial institutions over the past three years by governments around the world, nothing has been resolved.
  • Who Will Fix the Economy?

Who Will Fix the Economy? Henry Mintzberg, Nation of Change

  • On the ground, there are two kinds of enterprises: those that rely on exploration, and those that rely on exploitation. Every economy has both, but a healthy one favors the explorers. This fosters the sense of enterprise that made the United States such an economic powerhouse.
  • Confronting the Wealth Divide is the Key to Fixing the World Economy
  • Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity

Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity, Byron Williams, Huffington Post

  • Which direction the country is to go, what type of nation do we choose to be, and what kind of people do we choose to be.
  • The conversation will be broadcast live on C-SPAN Thursday January 12 and rebroadcast for three nights on Tavis Smiley on PBS beginning Monday, January 16.
  • Chris Hedges |  Brace Yourself!

Paul Krugman | All the GOP's Gekkos, Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

  • Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the release of the movie 'Wall Street,' and the film seems more relevant than ever. The self-righteous screeds of financial tycoons denouncing President Obama all read like variations on Gordon Gekko's famous 'greed is good' speech, while the complaints of Occupy Wall Street sound just like what Gekko declares at one point in private: "I create nothing. I own." At another, he asks his protege, "Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, buddy?"
  • How the GOP Tries to Transform America into a Selfish, Souless Place
     
Section(s): 

Special Report | #OccupyWallStreet / October2011, Week of January 29

  • Searching for Hope in America: An impassioned plea for the American people to wake up!
  • Stop the Machine! Create a New World!

4 New Items including:

  • The World War on Democracy
  • Thank You For Standing Up
  • Soros Predicts Growth of Occupy Movement, Applauds it for Changing the Political Debate
  • Occupy Wall St & the Future of the 100%

David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest

Milt Priggee

The World War on Democracy, John Pilger, Global Research

  • The historic corollary of a perpetual war state, this is not fascism, not yet, but neither is it democracy in any recognisable form, regardless of the placebo politics that will consume the news until November.
  • The circumscribed task of journalism on both sides of the Atlantic is to create the pretence of political choice where there is none.

Thank You For Standing Up, Chris Hedges, Truthdig
"Turn off your televisions. Ignore the Newt-Mitt-Rick-Barack reality show. It is as relevant to your life as the gossip on Jersey Shore. The real debate, the debate raised by the Occupy movement about inequality, corporate malfeasance, the destruction of the ecosystem, and the security and surveillance state, is the only debate that matters."

Soros Predicts Growth of Occupy Movement, Applauds it for Changing the Political Debate, John Arlidge, Newsweek / Kevin Zeese, October2011

  • George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War
  • 'The situation is about as serious and difficult as I've experienced in my career.'

Occupy Wall St & the Future of the 100%, MN Senator John Marty, Apple Pie Alliance
Now, it is important to channel the passion of the occupation into the nitty-gritty of grassroots democracy. As the writer Scott Turow suggests, "Those in tents across the nation should start going door to door with petitions, visiting legislators and building alliances with good-government groups, all in service to a proposed (constitutional) amendment" to regulate campaign financing to prevent anyone from having unequal influence on elections through their wealth.



 

Paul Krugman | Nobody Understands Debt

  • When people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they're talking about - and the people who talk the most understand the least.
  • The economic “experts” on whom much of Congress relies have been repeatedly, utterly wrong about the short-run effects of budget deficits.
  • World economy set for another major downturn
  • All the GOP's Gekkos

Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

In 2011, as in 2010, America was in a technical recovery but continued to suffer from disastrously high unemployment. And through most of 2011, as in 2010, almost all the conversation in Washington was about something else: the allegedly urgent issue of reducing the budget deficit.

This misplaced focus said a lot about our political culture, in particular about how disconnected Congress is from the suffering of ordinary Americans. But it also revealed something else: when people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they’re talking about — and the people who talk the most understand the least.

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World economy set for another major downturn, Nick Beams, World Socialist Website

  • Despite the trillions of dollars handed out to the banks and financial institutions over the past three years by governments around the world, nothing has been resolved.
  • Who Will Fix the Economy?

Paul Krugman | All the GOP's Gekkos, Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

  • Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the release of the movie 'Wall Street,' and the film seems more relevant than ever. The self-righteous screeds of financial tycoons denouncing President Obama all read like variations on Gordon Gekko's famous 'greed is good' speech, while the complaints of Occupy Wall Street sound just like what Gekko declares at one point in private: "I create nothing. I own." At another, he asks his protege, "Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, buddy?"
  • How the GOP Tries to Transform America into a Selfish, Souless Place
     
Section(s): 

World economy set for another major downturn

  • Despite the trillions of dollars handed out to the banks and financial institutions over the past three years by governments around the world, nothing has been resolved.
  • Who Will Fix the Economy?

Nick Beams, World Socialist Website

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor John Stoltenberg

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button in the above right-hand corner—so we can bring you more just like it.

The World Bank has issued a grim forecast on the outlook for the world economy, with the potential for a crisis worse than that which followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The warning was contained in the Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report, issued yesterday.

These predictions were backed by a United Nations report. It said the world economy was “teetering on the brink of another major downturn,” with output growth slowing “considerably” in 2011 and only “anaemic growth” expected in 2012 and 2013.

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Related:

Who Will Fix the Economy? Henry Mintzberg, Nation of Change

  • On the ground, there are two kinds of enterprises: those that rely on exploration, and those that rely on exploitation. Every economy has both, but a healthy one favors the explorers. This fosters the sense of enterprise that made the United States such an economic powerhouse.
  • Confronting the Wealth Divide is the Key to Fixing the World Economy
  • Remaking America: From Poverty to Prosperity
     

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