The Subprime Crisis and Cinema...

Students often ask me what films best capture these frenzied financial times.

For a brief but scathing look at Congress' exemption of credit derivatives from the purview of both the SEC and CFTC, I suggest viewing an indie titled American Casino.

For a dramatic portrayal of a Bailout (scripted with dialogue including cumbersome terms like "credit default swaps" and "CDOs"), I like Wall Street II.

For a gripping account of the dangers one trader can visit upon the most traditionally conservative of institutions, see Rogue Trader (detailing the suicidal speculation of a desk at Barings Bank).  

For a humorous look at taxpayer anger, I refer concerned citizens to Capitalism: A Love Story (which actually concludes with the solitary Michael Moore attempting a citizen's arrest of the Boards of bailed out Wall Street companies).

But for the best appraisal of the regulatory task at hand, I must endorse Transformers, wherein the nations of the earth join forces to combat an unprecedented monster of boundless energy and strength, ignoring cultural differences and nationalistic suspicions in the cause of subduing the alien threat, ultimately succeeding only in burying the problem at the bottom of the deep blue sea before its resurfacing about two years later...

---JSC, 1/11/11