Charles Ferguson's 2010 documentary Inside Job stitches together a decades-long tale of regulatory capture, undeclared conflicts of interest and political choices that culminated in the 2008 financial collapse. Ferguson traces the arc from the post‑1941 regulated era through the long sweep of deregulation into the 1990s and 2000s — calling out the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 for insulating derivatives from oversight — and then details how banks and insurers bundled subprime mortgages into CDOs while credit‑rating agencies multiplied AAA ratings. The film names the principal players: the five dominant investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns), the financial conglomerates (Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase), insurers (AIG, MBIA), and the three rating agencies. It narrates the rapid unspooling in 2007–2008 — Bear Stearns' liquidity collapse in March 2008, the federal conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers' September 2008 bankruptcy after Treasury officials Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner decided not to rescue it, AIG's government takeover on September 17, and the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that President George W. Bush signed on October 3, 2008.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2000s
Inside Job's Exposé: How Executives Walked Away, Economists Hid Conflicts, and Washington Approved a $700 Billion Rescue
Inside Job (2010) / 2000s
Charles Ferguson's 2010 documentary Inside Job stitches together a decades-long tale of regulatory capture, undeclared conflicts of interest and political choices that culminated in the 2008 financial collapse. Ferguson traces the arc from the post‑1941 regulated era through the long sweep of deregulation into the 1990s and 2000s — calling out the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 for insulating derivatives from oversight — and then details how banks and insurers bundled subprime mortgages into CDOs while credit‑rating agencies multiplied AAA ratings. The film names the principal players: the five dominant investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns), the financial conglomerates (Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase), insurers (AIG, MBIA), and the three rating agencies. It narrates the rapid unspooling in 2007–2008 — Bear Stearns' liquidity collapse in March 2008, the federal conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers' September 2008 bankruptcy after Treasury officials Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner decided not to rescue it, AIG's government takeover on September 17, and the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that President George W. Bush signed on October 3, 2008.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.