Inside Job is a 2010 American documentary film, directed by Charles Ferguson, about the late-2000s financial crisis. Ferguson says the film is about “the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption”. It screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in May and won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In the 1990s, derivatives became popular in the industry and added instability. Efforts to regulate derivatives were thwarted by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
During the housing boom, the ratio of money borrowed by banks to their assets reached unprecedented levels. Subprime loans led to predatory lending; Goldman-Sachs sold $3 billion worth of CDOs in the first half of 2006. The Great Recession began in November 2007, and in March 2008, Bear Stearns ran out of cash. By December 2008, GM and Chrysler also faced bankruptcy. Foreclosures in the U.S. reached unprecedented levels.
The incoming Obama administration’s financial reforms were weak. Many of these economists had conflicts of interest, collecting sums as consultants to companies involved in the financial crisis. The film was met with critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 8.21/10. In 2011, a Metacritic editor ranked the film first on the subject of the 2008 financial crisis.
Random Citizen 