Tag: Inside Job

The Modern Face of Evil (via The Compulsive Explainer)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’m a big fan of Iniside Job and apparently so is this gentleman. I agree with his remarks. I too believe that the instigators of this calamity were evil, not misguided, not just skirting the edge of legality, but evil.

I hope people like this embrace the concept of evil as a explanation for actions taken for unimaginable greed. This is a difficult time to live in. But one of the reasons we live in difficult times is because it was arranged that way. People were not held accountable for their own actions. Banking institutions did not suffer the results of their mistakes. Thus we have the a country where the free market is cited for every problem and in spite of that a tax supported, profit guaranteed, financial industry with the morals of a rabid dog was protected from it. If you use the mantra of the free market to discourage regulation, you shouldn’t be able to turn around and get taxpayer money.

This is a good post. My thanks to The Compulsive Explainer.

James Pilant

I am watching the movie Inside Job, and I am learning from it. I am watching the handful of guys who wrecked the world’s economy profess to be innocent as lambs. What I couldn’t see was the millions of people who let them get away with it. The modern face of evil is helplessness in the face of power – and people who are only interested in themselves. People who have lost the ability to be good – or to care for others. People who have ceased to ex … Read More

via The Compulsive Explainer

Academics on the Inside Job (via 21st Century Scholar)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Can academics (professors) be co-opted by the corporate grants and consultancies? Academia is for most professors not a lucrative field. Beginning salaries of less than thirty thousand dollars are not unknown. My understanding is that the field of economics is considered by some authorities to be the most corrupted.

This posting offers insight into academic corruption as reported in the documentary, Inside Job. I liked what he has to say.

James Pilant

by Bill Tierney “Inside Job” is a well-done documentary about the collapse of the financial industry.  The movie is akin to Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” in tone and style.  The movie is very serious and has little of the fun of a Michael Moore flick.  But the director and writers make a very difficult topic understandable to viewers who may not know their derivatives from their hedge funds. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, however … Read More

via 21st Century Scholar

“Inside Job” The Director Speaks

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, Teaching, White Collar Crime3 Comments

Charles Ferguson directed the documentary “Inside Job.” He writes about his thoughts and conclusions from creating the documentary.

One of the things he found puzzling (as do I), doesn’t doing serious long term damage to the nation’s infrastructure like roads, bridges and education become a concern for the financial elites since over time it damages their American investments?

Here’s the answer.  (from the article) –

The financial services industry and the most successful American multinational firms now obtain rapidly increasing fractions, often already the majority, of their investment, employees, and revenues from (a) other wealthy individuals and corporations and/or (b) outside the United States. Over the last two decades their political interests, contributions, and lobbying have gradually followed these larger trends. As a result, the political duopoly has overseen a massive disinvestment in the future of the United States and the American people, and a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% of the population to the top 1%. Taxes on dividends, high incomes, capital gains, and estates have sharply declined, while tuition at public universities, hours worked per family, household debt, and government deficits have all increased.

They have no interest in the long term future of the nation. This nation is similar to the Wild West idea of Robbers’ Roost.

Robbers’ Roost is a town hidden in the hills where the outlaws go to hang out. There is no law there. They do what they feel like. They are safe from the sheriff and all those people they took stuff from.

The United States is going to be a great big friendly place for people with lots of money and few morals. One law for them. One law for us.

James Pilant

The trailer –

Inside Job (Film)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime2 Comments

I want you to look at the trailer. I will be discussing this film more at it reaches more people. What I have heard about it is impressive. I know its conclusions mirror my own.

James Pilant