Inside Job, Oscar-Winning Documentary, Now Online (Free)

Free to Watch online at Open Culture.


In late February, Charles Ferguson’s film – Inside Job – won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. And now the film documenting the causes of the 2008 global financial meltdown has made its way online (thanks to the Internet Archive). A corrupt financial industry, its corrosive relationship with politicians, academics and regulators, and the trillions of damage done, it all gets documented in this film that runs a little shy of 2 hours.


Inside Job  can be purchased on DVD at Amazon or watched free below or at Open Culture. We all love free, but let’s remember that good projects cost real money to develop, and they could use real financial support. So please consider buying a copy.


Hopefully watching or buying this film won’t be a pointless act, even though it can rightly feel that way. As Charles Ferguson reminded us during his Oscar acceptance speech, we are three years beyond the Wall Street crisis and taxpayers (you) got fleeced for billions. But still not one Wall Street exec is facing criminal charges. Welcome to your plutocracy…

Charlie Rose Interviews Charles Ferguson on his documentary 'Inside Job'

Watch "Inside Job' below:

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US claims profit on bank bailout program

© AFP/File Saul Loeb

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Wednesday its bank bailouts had earned a profit, 30 months after the Treasury committed hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue financial institutions as the economy plunged into crisis.

After enduring deep criticism over the use of taxpayer funds to rescue banks run aground by billionaire executives, the Treasury said bank repayments to the Troubled Asset Relief Program had brought in $251 billion, compared to outlays of $245 billion.

"While our overriding objective with TARP was to break the back of the financial crisis and save American jobs, the fact that our investment in banks has also delivered a significant profit for taxpayers is a welcome development," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
"Today is an important milestone in our efforts to recover taxpayer dollars as we continue winding down TARP," he said in a statement.

The announcement came after three banks repaid $7.38 billion in funds supplied by the program at the height of the crisis, together with $25.9 million in dividends.

Geithner predicted another $20 billion in profits from the bank support programs.

TARP was initiated by the administration of former president George W. Bush in late 2008 as the US financial sector faced a meltdown.

The goal was "to help stop a financial panic and prevent a second Great Depression," the Treasury said Wednesday.

But it sparked a nationwide debate that continues to resound over whether public funds should be used to rescue private businesses, even large ones whose failure could damage the entire system.

Initially funded with $700 billion, the program in execution was roughly half that size. Aside from the bank rescues, $40 billion were used to prop up insurer AIG, $21 billion for failing automakers, and another $40 billion used to buy stock in Bank of America and Citigroup.

TARP did not include the government's rescue of semi-government mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is expected to lose the government and taxpayers $73 billion, according to Treasury data.

The AIG bailout could also rack up a loss of $28.1 billion, it said.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license 

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US bank bailout was 'critical': Congress watchdog

© AFP/File Nicholas Kamm

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government's multi-billion-dollar bank bailout helped avert a second Great Depression and cost taxpayers much less than expected, but was far from perfect, a congressional watchdog said Wednesday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel said the controversial $700 billion dollar bailout, launched in 2008, provided "critical" support for financial markets at a key time and will cost $25 billion -- a fraction of the original estimate.

The Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP), which was signed into law by then president George W. Bush and taken up by Barack Obama, "provided critical support to markets at a moment of profound uncertainty," it said in its final report.

The comments come nearly three years after the government stepped in to oil the wheels of the financial markets after Lehman Brothers' collapse prompted vital inter-bank lending to dry up, leaving many household names in jeopardy.

TARP's main success, according to the report, came not just through the massive sums injected but "by demonstrating that the United States would take any action necessary to prevent the collapse of its financial system."

"Through a combined display of political resolve and financial force, the TARP quelled the immediate panic and helped to avert an even more severe crisis."

"TARP will cost taxpayers $25 billion -- an enormous sum, but vastly less than the $356 billion... initially estimated," it said.

The Treasury Department, according to the panel, deserved credit for lowering costs through the "diligent" management of assets and "careful restructuring" of AIG, Chrysler, and GM.
But the oversight panel was not wholly supportive of the policy.

"Although this much-reduced cost estimate is encouraging, it does not necessarily validate Treasury's administration of the TARP," it added, citing poor transparency and the failure of some programs.

The policy was a dangerous gamble with taxpayers' money, the congressional watchdog concluded.

The panel detailed how 18 large financial institutions at one stage received a staggering $208.6 billion in TARP funding almost overnight as the government tried to prop up the system.

"At one point, the federal government guaranteed or insured $4.4 trillion in face value of financial assets.

"If the financial system had suffered another shock on the road to recovery, taxpayers would have faced staggering losses."

TARP was also criticized for compounding the sense that some "too-big-to-fail" banks can get away with wildly reckless trading.

"By protecting very large banks from insolvency and collapse, the TARP also created moral hazard," the report said.

"Very large financial institutions may now rationally decide to take inflated risks because they expect that, if their gamble fails, taxpayers will bear the loss."

But whatever the report's verdict, the bailout is unlikely to become popular among US taxpayers and voters.

With nearly 14 million workers unemployed, it is widely seen as a Washington sop to vested interests on Wall Street that did little to help Main Street.

"Because the TARP was designed for an inherently unpopular purpose -- rescuing Wall Street banks from the consequences of their own actions -- stigmatization was likely inevitable," the report noted.

It added that the Treasury Department's failure to clean out failed executives and clamp down on high salaries added to the stigma.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license 

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