The Financial Crisis

[Arbitrage]

I teach 6th Formers A Level Economics. Each year I volunteer (unpaid) to run extension classes with some of the more enthusiastic members of the Upper Sixth. The goal is to go beyond the rather simplistic (Keynesian dominated) A Level specification.

Today was my first session for this year's Upper Sixth and I opted to show them this: Overdose the next financial crisis

They loved it, and after we finished watching it we had a useful discussion that went into why the Keynesian policies tried to date have failed.

Next week I'm thinking about showing them this: Debtocracy

I guess at some point I'll also show Inside job

So what I'd like to ask you is.........................

What film or documentary do you think is the most interesting that you've watched on the on-going financial crisis?

[SuperChimp]

I can only recommend this one at the moment for a broad analysis:

Many of the other videos I enjoy are more 'specific' and give a precious-metal angle which would not be of much interest to many.

Thanks for those two videos by the way, I will try and watch them over the next couple of days.

As an aside, it is incredible to think how many competing economic theories we have access to via the internet. I have become quite dogmatic in my views and in my interpretation of economic events but to think how I would be reacting to this crisis if it had occurred 5 years ago is frightening.

[zugzwang]

I teach 6th Formers A Level Economics. Each year I volunteer (unpaid) to run extension classes with some of the more enthusiastic members of the Upper Sixth. The goal is to go beyond the rather simplistic (Keynesian dominated) A Level specification.

Today was my first session for this year's Upper Sixth and I opted to show them this: Overdose the next financial crisis

They loved it, and after we finished watching it we had a useful discussion that went into why the Keynesian policies tried to date have failed.

Next week I'm thinking about showing them this: Debtocracy

I guess at some point I'll also show Inside job

So what I'd like to ask you is.........................

What film or documentary do you think is the most interesting that you've watched on the on-going financial crisis?

I haven't seen either of those (yet!), but deffo Inside Job. Watch the banking criminals interviewed face-to-face and hear the deceit first-hand.

[switters]

It's got to be the latest Fred Harrison

Are u brave enough?

Edited September 18, 2012 by switters

[200p]

It's got all your favourites - Christine Lagarde

Aired before the crisis

[JimDiGritz]

Great topic.

Personally, as a primer I am a fan of Chris Martenson's Crash Course.

http://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse

It is basic, however it helps bring energy and the environment nicely into the economic picture, which I believe is too often left out in economics classes.

[jaspers]

This should do it. Loads of ideas to provoke debate

And drier but shorter

Edited September 19, 2012 by jaspers

[djmgw]

Margin Call

djmgw

[LuckyOne]

Once they know a bit about the subject :

Then

[Guest_FaFa!_*]

What film or documentary do you think is the most interesting that you've watched on the on-going financial crisis?[/b]

[Arbitrage]

Here's another one. Why don't we learn from history?

Part 2

[TheBlueCat]

Margin Call

djmgw

That one by a mile. As a standalone film it's an absolute classic and it has the added benefit of being, within the limits of what's required for dramatic effect, accurate.

[The Spaniard]

Show your students this award winning documentary on YouTube:

Ask your students how they think a supposedly sovereign nation should provide itself with an adequate medium of exchange.

Should the national money supply be issued collectively (i.e. publicly) debt-free, to circulate persistently among the population of money users?

Or should it be borrowed into circulation at interest from a cartel of profit-motivated private banks?

Discuss with them the following excerpt from Bill Still's book No More National Debt.

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/2012/05/no-more-national-debt/

[Crashman Begins]

[ntb]

Give them some Denninger. Obviously US centric but directly relevant to us and gets right to the issues.

Edited September 22, 2012 by ntb

[crashmonitor]

Best song

[winkie]

Good song.

[bmf]

That one by a mile. As a standalone film it's an absolute classic and it has the added benefit of being, within the limits of what's required for dramatic effect, accurate.

Agree. So many great details. Filmed in the offices of a hedge fund that went bust earlier that week.

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Economics is arithmetic for fraudsters.

[Giordano Bruno]

This thread is too good to be relegated to page 2. It should be pinned, in my opinion.

There are some feature films and dramas also of interest to HPCers, I would think. Like 'Glengarry Glen Ross', 'The Money Pit', and there was a TV drama aired about six months ago about the problems of a security guard who was duped by his estate agent/mortgage broker 'friend' into taking out a mortgage he couldn't afford which all goes pear-shaped. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it but it was good.

[gf3]

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

This there was a TV drama aired about six months ago about the problems of a security guard who was duped by his estate agent/mortgage broker 'friend' into taking out a mortgage he couldn't afford which all goes pear-shaped. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it but it was good.

Freefall

Edited September 23, 2012 by SeeYouNextTuesday

[A.steve]

I opted to show them this: Overdose the next financial crisis

I hadn't seen this, so - first - thanks for posting... I found it interesting... though it left me with more questions than it provided insights.

I've been thinking that we can only 'recover' when a new bubble takes off - and, selfishly, I thought about this from the perspective of benefiting by early identification. My take on the crash we've just lived through is that it was a credit bubble - a bubble in the mechanism of debt itself as opposed to any specific investment class. I found it very difficult to envision what sort of bubble could be the logical successor.

In one sense, a 'bailout bubble' sounds very credible... it's the one thing that is big (universal) enough to trump credit itself. In another sense, it sounds like nonsense. Sure, when I think of the prospect of exponentially expanding central bank lending to governments (and state backed enterprises) it seems credible... but:

• What, if any, will be the externally visible consequences of this? Might not sovereign debts simply be kited by central banks to give the impression to the man in the street that there's no change to the year-in-year-out deficit spending that's been a universal in the west?

• How would a bailout-bubble burst? What sort of tangible events would happen then? Sure, one might point at hyperinflations - but this won't be a risk if every currency is implicated - will it? Will the bailout bubble burst with systemic defaults? (That doesn't seem likely to me...)

• How would a bailout-bubble be recognised? Should we assume inflation - given that classical economics suggests this to be the consequence of government overspend?

Essentially, I'd like to know - if the bailout-bubble hypothesis is to be taken seriously, what objective measurements should we watch?

I think the programme is right - the bailouts are the next 'big thing' - but I remain almost completely clueless as to how these policies will manifest themselves in real life. In the 90s, profit seekers should have bought technology stocks and sold in 2000... then bought real-estate and sold in 2007 - then, possibly, a brief spell in precious metals. What's next (or now)?

Edited September 24, 2012 by A.steve

[workingatthepyramid]

+1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umFnrvcS6AQ/

[RichB]

Some interesting submissions.

However, you all seem to have missed the obvious.

Planet of the Apes.