Documentaries about Economy

Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the U.S. Federal Reserve has never been greater. Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed Chairman's every word. Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth. Narrated by Liev Schreiber, Money For Nothing is the first film to take viewers inside the Fed and reveal the impact of Fed policies - past, present, and future - on our lives. Join current and former Fed officials as they debate the critics, and each other, about the decisions that helped lead the global financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008. And why we might be headed there again.

After starting a painting business right before the housing crash, a filmmaker drives over 35,000 miles to track down the people who saw it coming and look back at the causes of not just this bubble, but the great depression and 1970's.

'Ghost Exchange' probes the volatile state of U.S. capital markets and their critical impact on America's economic future. The film explores the acceleration of the evolution of U.S. stock exchanges, and uncovers the risks resulting from this wholesale adoption. Wall Street has transformed from the world of human touch trading, to computer algorithm trading- where stocks are owned for mere microseconds. The thought-provoking documentary also examines how recent financial headlines are a direct result of automated systems running unchecked. The capital market system that many considered as the world's best, may have been inadvertently lost by the pursuit of speed and efficiencies that we still do not truly understand. Wall Street has become a 'ghost exchange'.

For three weeks in September 2008, one person was charged with preventing the collapse of the global economy. No one understood the financial markets better than Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. In Hank: Five Years from the Brink, Paulson tells the complete story of how he persuaded banks, Congress and presidential candidates to sign off on nearly $1 trillion in bailouts - even as he found the behavior that led to the crisis, and the bailouts themselves, morally reprehensible. Directed by Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost Trilogy, Some Kind of Monster), the film features Paulson, and his wife of 40 years, Wendy. it's a riveting portrait of leadership under unimaginable pressure - and a marriage under unfathomable circumstances.

A documentary that follows former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich as he looks to raise awareness of the country's widening economic gap.

A former banker in Germany, who entered the business with the advent of modern computer systems reminisces of his working years in some of the world-leading banking corporations.

Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the U.S. Federal Reserve has never been greater. Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed Chairman's every word. Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth. Narrated by Liev Schreiber, Money For Nothing is the first film to take viewers inside the Fed and reveal the impact of Fed policies - past, present, and future - on our lives. Join current and former Fed officials as they debate the critics, and each other, about the decisions that helped lead the global financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008. And why we might be headed there again.

It was the defining moment of the 1980s. The New York Stock Exchange, the epicenter of the world financial markets and backbone of American capitalism, was under siege. On October 19th, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, the largest single day drop in the history of the stock market. But it was on Tuesday, October 20th that the world's financial markets came within 5 minutes of total disintegration.

Explores how China's entry into the World Trade Organization led to job losses and massive corporate profits for multinational companies, leaving the U.S. with over $3 trillion in debt. It argues that trade reform with China.

A documentary on the city of Detroit and its woes, which are emblematic of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base.

In 2008 the world experienced financial turmoil. Markets crashed, stocks plummeted, and financial institutions thought to be invincible, collapsed. Was the financial crisis solved or were the problems merely kicked down the road?

Do people exist to serve the economy, or should the economy exist to serve the people? In Fixing the Future, host David Brancaccio, of public radio's Marketplace and NOW on PBS, visits people and organizations across America that are attempting a revolution: the reinvention of the American economy. There are thousands of initiatives around the country - from farmers markets to local business networks - aimed at creating sustainable, local economies. The film highlights effective practices such as: local business alliances, community banking, time banking/hour exchange, worker cooperatives, local currencies and other innovative strategies that people across America have embraced to reinvent the economy on their own terms. By featuring Main Street communities using these innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity, Fixing the Future inspires hope and renewal in people struggling with economic adversity.

The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.

Though the recession officially ended in summer 2009, the fallout continues for some 25 million unemployed and underemployed Americans, many of whom worked their way up the corporate ladder, achieving the American Dream, only to see it slip through their fingers.

First person accounts present factors contributing to the federal debt and possible solutions. Topics include entitlement programs, defense spending, tax reform, and the choices America's debt forces on individuals and businesses.

An adaptation of Margaret Atwood's book examining the metaphor of indebtedness.

An exposé on how the government has allowed U.S. corporations to avoid paying taxes and the growing wave of discontent that it has fostered.

Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? reveals how American corporations orchestrated the dismantling of middle-class prosperity through rampant deregulation, the outsourcing of jobs, and tax policies favoring businesses and the wealthy. The collapse of the U.S. economy is the result of conscious choices made over thirty five years by a small group: leaders of corporations and their elected allies, and the biggest lobbying interest in Washington, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. To these individuals, the collapse is not a catastrophe, but rather the planned outcome of their long, patient work. For the rest of the country, it is merely the biggest heist in American history.

A look at how one investigator spent ten years trying to expose Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme that scammed an estimated $18 billion from investors.

An examination of the causes of the global economic crisis which began in 2008, studying how decades of social changes have influenced financial systems and practices.

This documentary takes a look at how the Wall Street meltdown has affected the working class.

A documentary on Michael Ruppert, a police officer turned independent reporter who predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness.

For some people, risking everything is nothing.

Follows a scrappy group of commodities traders as they try to make a living trading coffee on the New York Board of Trade before electronic trading threatens to make their way of life obsolete.

Documentarian Danny Schechter explores the financial crisis and argues that it was built on a foundation of criminal activity. To get to the bottom of it all Schechter interviews bankers, economists, and journalists.