I watched this yesterday. It explains the ongoing collapse of western civilisation, names the guilty- and points out that most of them are still in positions of power and influence (running the Obama administration for instance).
As far as I can see, every political leader in the west- for the past thirty odd years- has been committed to the same philosophy of unregulated markets- and remains committed in spite of everything. We need someone to be suggesting alternatives- and no-one is.
No, that is not what occurred in the banking and finance committee in our Congress, headed by Barney Frank. They regulated in the opposite direction, incentivizing banks and government loan agencies to make loans to people who could not afford them under the guise of "helping the unfortunate".
Here's my alternative: The governments of countries must stop spending money that they do not have. Their judgment is now too clouded by their indebtedness.
I don't know about the UK, but huge lawsuits with respect to the financial crisis are now starting to move through our court systems.
Frank isn't mentioned in the film. At least I don't remember him appearing. I must dig for more information. Where politicians appear it is mainly as dupes of the money-men.
Our government talks about slashing spending, but is still borrowing record amounts.
I don't know about lawsuits. It's my impression that the British culprits have mostly gotten away with it.
Barney Frank gets blamed for a lot of the economic collapse here. I am from Massachusetts, and I know Barney Frank as a man who fought for the little people and sought to give them a chance at the so-called American Dream. Of course the banks went overboard with a scheme they KNEW was bound to fail over time, meanwhile raking in tremendous profits for themselves and tremendous losses for their debtors. Shades of Scrooge! Barney Frank is no more to blame for the crash than Abe Lincoln was for the Civil War!
I've read his wikipedia entry. I get the impression he was one of many caught up in the madness. It wasn't of his making, but he did his bit to push it along- but so did most western politicians of all parties.
The (so-called "Christian") right are after Barney Frank because he is gay! They succeeded in gerrymandering his district to eliminate many of his supporters, and to now include many of Boston's few right wingers. At 70 years of age, Barney has retired and has been dissed for doing it. Here's hoping that Mike Ross does decide to run for Barney's seat -- if he does and if he wins, once again, the poorer, the disenfranchised, and many minority groups will continue to be well-represented in Congress.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-12-09 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-09 02:55 pm (UTC)No, that is not what occurred in the banking and finance committee in our Congress, headed by Barney Frank. They regulated in the opposite direction, incentivizing banks and government loan agencies to make loans to people who could not afford them under the guise of "helping the unfortunate".
Here's my alternative: The governments of countries must stop spending money that they do not have. Their judgment is now too clouded by their indebtedness.
I don't know about the UK, but huge lawsuits with respect to the financial crisis are now starting to move through our court systems.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-09 04:27 pm (UTC)Where politicians appear it is mainly as dupes of the money-men.
Our government talks about slashing spending, but is still borrowing record amounts.
I don't know about lawsuits. It's my impression that the British culprits have mostly gotten away with it.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 07:48 pm (UTC)Barney Frank is no more to blame for the crash than Abe Lincoln was for the Civil War!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 09:26 pm (UTC)