I watched it, and to my understanding, it was pretty accurate..
The whole narrative about not bailing out lehman and then bailing out AIG was how it happened, according to what I have read.
The bowing down to Pelosi was a well documented event. Most of the movie seemed accurate to what I have read. Anyone else?
2 words:
FannieMae
Freddiemac
2 perpetrators:
j. carter
b.j. clinton
That’s all anyone need know about what caused the 2008 bump. Had it not been for the massive overreaction and overreaching of teh wan and his corral of academicians, none of who have even run a lemonade stand, it would have been over by 2009.
Here are 2 threads that discuss “TBTF” on Karl Denninger’s forum. (I have not seen it) In general, these are folks who are quite aware of and suitably informed as to what happened; and I am sure they will have an overwhelmingly negative view. I apologize if the threads are password protected. If so, let me know and I will do what I can to pass on or otherwise make available the reviews/comments. Some language WILL (not *may* not!) not be safe for work!
http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=186760&ord=2560062#2560062
http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=185793&ord=2560055#2560055
Just for clarification, by an “overwhelmingly negative view” in my prior post I meant they will have a negative view of the bailout(s)....not a negative view of the HBO production.
I was afraid to watch it too, mostly because I had the un-pleasure of hearing an interview with Ed Asner about it, who actually said that one reason he enjoyed doing the movie was that he hated capitalism so much. I feared he was “the star” and that it would be some sort of socialism beats this crap kind of film.
I was WRONG. It was a good movie and only got in a teeny dig against the Republicans, and of course their jab at McCain rushing in to save the day WAS JUSTIFIED because he did behave idiotically in his unique Napoleonic way.
The acting was good, especially my very favorite actor James Woods. The scene where he (as CEO of Lehman) watches, with a glass of scotch, on TV while the government bails out AIG after his company was forced to go bankrupt, was very touching. I love that guy. And William Hurt, known for overacting, was subtle and not bad at all as Hank Paulson.
The community reinvestment Act (CRA) was passed a long time ago but it wasn’t really enforced until the 90’s. When Dems won Congress in 2006 during Bush they dusted it off and really started applying it.
So it was a carrot and stick, make ‘sub-prime’ loans or else we (Congress) will investigate you. This was the stick.
The carrot was you could make a bad loan and pawn it off on the government though Freddie/Fanny. This was the carrot.
All things being equal bankers wouldn’t loan to people who couldn’t pay the loan back. But government regulation changed this.
In 1968 as part of President Johnson's Great Society reform plan, the Fair Housing Act was passed to fight the practice of restrictive loan processing. It prohibited geographic restrictions when the criteria for redlining were based on race, religion, gender, familial status, disability, or ethnic origin.
In 1977 Sen. Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) introduced a “creeping socialism” community reinvestment Senate bill. Opponents argued the bill would allocate credit without regard for merits of loan applications, thereby threatening depository institutions.
Proponents countered that it was only to ensure that lenders did not ignore good borrowing prospects in their communities. The bill's sponsor stressed it would neither force high-risk lending nor substitute the views of regulators or those of banks.
Then later President Carter, pressed by grassroots organizations — though opposed by the banking industry— signed into law the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). It guaranteed home loans to low-income families.
Also at this time ACORN was forming and beginning its efforts to organize and redistribute federal money while bypassing state and local governments.
Enter quasi-governmental competition from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac; active government officials (that interfered with the normal market funtions) such as William J. Clinton, James Johnson (Fannie Mae), Janet Reno (Justice Department), Henry Cisneros (Clinton's HUD Secretary), Robert Rubin (Treasury Secretary), Jamie Gorelick (number two at Justice), Andrew Cuomo (HUD Secretary after Cisneros), Rep. Barnie Frank who blocked efforts at oversight, and a whole host of other secondary players such as Madeline Talbot (ACORN), who implemented a massive re-distribution program of unimaginable scope, while paying themselves astronomical salaries, commissions, and bonuses.
Traditionally conservative banking, lending, insurance, and investment houses began to shift their business models under pressure from the three branches of government---Reno's Justice Department suits against lending institutions; Franks and Kennedy's legislative action on regulations and lending practices; Clinton's executive pressure from HUD and Treasury; and cutthroat competition from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which were engaging in unfair lending practices---and forcing historically successful and conservatively operated institutions into government constructed high risk adventures in money and credit mis-management.
It is even more complicated than this description.
Liberals will lay out facts in their presentation of history but airbrush out other facts that change the whole conclusion.
Discover what facts have been air brushed from their presentation and you will find the real meat of went down.
Michael Savage is savaging this movie right now!
Good review here of the Democrat hit piece blaming Republicans for the financial disasters.
Peter Schiff speaks on HBO’s “Too Big to Fail”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXa6qyUnlYk