Generation Zero

The best thing I can tell you about this flick is that watching it is a useful exercise, of a sort. It does one welcome thing, which is to exhort us to use our heads, and thereby do honor to a long line of head- using progenitors in western civ.

So: Watch the movie while keeping this in mind: The flick will from time to time try to throw in an inducement to indulge a knee-jerk emotional revulsion to some boogum or other; for example, the "hippies".

Hold back. Follow the better angels of your thoughtful, circumspect self and listen to the welter of "serious" thinkers as the presentation attempts to marshal them toward a larger view of the current "crisis". What I think you'll see (not feel) is that the attempt to deliver a broad, convincing, explanatory perspective falls flat. The individuals spliced into the presentation may each have something interesting to say, but the pageant of this documentary fails to knit them into something cogent and convincing.

There are so, so many ways to interpret economic reality which are much, much more compelling than this rather confused, disparate patchwork.

I watched this for one reason: Bannon (the writer/editor) is now (2017/02) on the NSC. He's the dog who caught the car. I wanted to see if perhaps this documentary would have embedded in it a hint or two as to anything Bannon may be able to claim in the way of praxis: In other words, one would wish that, once the dog catches the car, it turns out to be a magic car that breaks the spell and turns Bannon from a dog into a statesman with a clear, focused perspective; one which contextualizes economic reality in a practical way, suggesting a way forward into what he calls "economic nationalism".

This flick doesn't give me hope. For example, it will not surprise me if his response to the hard economic reality which promises only to continue to rob American futurity is to exercise heavy power. And that's just the old standby/more of the same: Keep us on the hamster wheel, and throw monetary tokens into the pit and torch them--just like in days gone by. He doesn't really have a truly republican vision.

Disclaimer: I'm a former hedge fund guy.

Did I see the crash coming? Yes, but barely.

My fund, and a fund I represented, had mucho skin in game tied to domestic interest rates and LIBOR. So, I wanted...willed...all to be fine.

Didn't work.

1/6 of all hedge funds crashed, and didn't cost the tax payers a penny. Like a noncompetitive mom&pop restaurant, they were correctly left to fail.

Core of crash was three-pronged:

1: Federal Reserve: They've created boom/busts for 100 years. How? Just as Soviets couldn't centrally plan the price of a pencil, wheat, or gold, no one on earth can correctly centrally plan the price of money.

2: Federal Government: Goes back to the Community Reinvestment Act, forcing banks to lend to people, regardless of credit rating. Hey, I want ALL people to be rich. But, selectively punishing banks for not lending "enough" to certain racial groups is evil, anti-market, and proved to be, destructive. Banks love to lend...love it, and care not of one's race, gender, or sexual orientation. They absolutely do care if one can pay back a loan.

Think I cared the race of my clients investing $5 million, $1 million, or even in my entry level fund, $250K?

3: Wall Street(creation of CDOs etc), rating agencies (rated garbage as "A"), and Fannie and Freddie (bought garbage mortgages,and therefore, encouraged them) played huge role in this mess too. But, without items 1 and 2, 3 would have been impossible.

This is a right wing attack ad disguised as a documentary.There are no real facts presented, just the normal right wing rants about how everyone who doesn't agree with their view point is ruining the country.Democrats = communists,all regulations are strangling the business world,social programs are bleeding us dry, etc. At least they could have tried to make this interesting but no the constant attacks on everyone but Wall Street and so self righteous that after less than a quarter of the documentary it starts to grate on your nerves. Hippies, Godlessness, 50's mothers (women), Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, too much regulation caused the 2008 crash! REALLY?!! If you don't think but follow along and believe all the right wing crap this film will appeal to you, otherwise don't bother watching this.

Cherry picking generality while purposely omitting facts does not make for an accurate documentary. Banks "too big to fail" and the collapse of the housing market came as a result of the deregulation of banking which started in 1978 under Reagan. TARP, while very flawed under Obama, was started by Bush. Bush also cut taxes while opting to take the US to war in Afghanistan & Iraq. More spending with less revenue results is a bigger problem. Plenty of mistakes have been make by both sides. The sad reality is that the primary role of an elected official is to raise funds to get re-elected. Doing what's correct is a career ending move. Instead of spending money on this drivel, give that money to charity (not a PAC).

In light of the book just put out by a liberal New York Times writer who draws many of the same conclusions the movie does -- and traces the problems back to many of the same decisions made by those in government getting rich off crony capitalism and holes in the regulatory structure they themselves put in place, I'd say our Canadian friend who gave this a one star review might want to put on his thinking cap next time before opening his big sneering maw.

A very nice visual addendum to that book, Reckless Endangerement.

The fact is, we didn't just get where we are by accident; and though many don't want to hear it, actual decisions made by actual politicians trying to control a business sector whose job it is to make profit led directly to the current economic crisis. It's easy to promise people everything they want, to tell them they deserve it, and to run on a platform of "the other side wants to take it all away from you." But the truth is, money has to come from somewhere, and the government can't produce wealth. It can only collect it, spend it, and redistribute it after taking its cut. The sooner people understand economics, the faster we'll be able to fix what ails us.