The Flaw (2011)

The Flaw: Directed by David Sington. With Andrew Luan, Robert Shiller, Louis Hyman, George Cooper. An examination of the causes of the economic crisis of 2008.

“Only 2 reviews for this remarkable film? I leave the spoiler box unchecked, but really, the film is a u0026quot;spoileru0026quot; since it refers to the most recent crash, a veritable implosion of the global economy based partially on mortgage backed securities. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film is British, so at the very least we have a fine mix of American and British academics in economics giving slightly different, but converging approaches to what happened.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;ve seen a number of films on the crash (fictional and documentary), and this one is by far the best. The film is technical at times, but this is necessary. Nowadays, many of the actors involved in the financial sector are u0026quot;financial engineers.u0026quot; The days of simplicity are long gone. Itu0026#39;s all algorithms and computers now. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film strikes a perfect balance between archival footage, expert discussion, and interviews with u0026quot;real peopleu0026quot; who were caught up in the real estate binge. And not all of those who bought houses were speculators, some just wanted a decent place to live, and maybe to use that decent place to consolidate debts. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe title u0026quot;The Flawu0026quot; seems to have come from testimony given by Greenspan who referred to a flaw in his own ideology. The irony of this Randian admitting a problem with his ideology should not be taken for granted. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI walked away from this film wanting to watch it again. I hope more people will watch this film. This is not some kind of anti-capitalist diatribe. Instead the film methodically and subtly point out something we all know intuitively; capitalism as it presently functions cannot be sustained. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are no simple answers. Only some terrifying questions. And by the way, nothing was solved by the bailouts that wasnu0026#39;t short term. Nothing.”