Boom Bust Boom (2015)

Boom Bust Boom: Directed by Bill Jones, Terry Jones, Ben Timlett. With Terry Jones, George Magnus, Robert Shiller, Zvi Bodie. Terry Jones guides us through the history and the nature of the economic boom-bust cycle and why people repeatedly ignore it to their sorrow.

“OK, so maybe you have to be an economist (like me) or a financial analyst to enjoy this 70 minute trip through the periodic financial crises (like the one in 2008) that seem to plague capitalism, but I believe any educated person interested in the causes and after-effects of the 2008 crisis can enjoy this film. Itu0026#39;s an interesting combination of animation, puppetry, and original songs thatu0026#39;s melded with serious commentary by a number of well-known and influential economists including three Nobel Prize winners. We learn about the various u0026quot;asset price bubblesu0026quot; that preceded the unsustainable run-up in home prices prior to the financial crisis and stock market crash of 2008, like the tulip bubble in 17th century Holland, the South Seas bubble in 18th century Britain, and of course the Wall Street crash of 1929. Terry Jones, one of the filmmakers, proves once again that the Monty Python comedy troupe harbored some of the most intelligent, if zany, comedians youu0026#39;ll find anywhere.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe larger issue in this unusual and amusing documentary is the inability of the prevailing mainstream paradigm in economics (the u0026quot;neo-classical synthesisu0026quot; for you aficionados) to reflect the mass psychology of financial markets and institutions and their periodic proclivity to either u0026quot;irrational exuberanceu0026quot; or morbid fear. In addition, the regulatory authorities periodically accommodate market excesses by deregulation and then become more restrictive when the financial excesses have already wrecked the real economy as shown in this film. I am largely sympathetic with this point of view and have long felt that economics suffers from u0026quot;physics envyu0026quot; with its elaborate mathematical models (made possible by the assumption that economic agents are optimizing and calculating machines) and its emphasis on market equilibriums. Some of the speakers in this film suggest that economics would be more realistic if it became more of a narrative and descriptive discipline similar to the other social sciences and made less heroic assumptions about the rationality of its agents. Of course, that would be at the expense of the u0026quot;rigoru0026quot; of the discipline. Unfortunately, there were no counter-arguments presented by the filmmakers, and at the end we have one economist say: u0026quot;we have to re-design a new economy.u0026quot; When I hear that, Iu0026#39;m left with the thought that just maybe the periodic excesses in financial markets are the necessary price we must pay for the dynamism of a market economy.”