Anyone who will be in New York on April 29th (as we’ll be) should consider attending the National Arts Club premiere screening of Danny Schechter’s new film, PLUNDER: THE CRIME OF OUR TIME, which approaches the Financial Crisis as a crime story –a point of view held by many Americans.
The promo for this film states that a national poll just last month found that despite all the partisan political bickering and polarization, “82 percent of the American people want a ‘crackdown on Wall Street.’ Yet to date, only a handful of white collar criminals have been prosecuted for causing the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression.”
Personally, we place most of the blame for this mess on our elected officials, since they set the rules and are supposed to monitor the health of our financial system –but that’s for another post.
However, no matter who you blame, the crisis did expose a basic flaw in our representative form of government. We elect our fellow citizens to positions of great authority and these people are charged with determining the structure of our society. However, people win elections for all sorts of reasons –sometimes because they have the best qualifications; sometimes because they have the best hair. Yet, these everyday citizens are required to go to Washington and formulate laws and regulations on topics such aviation and finance that are extremely technical in nature. So technical, in fact that Alan Greenspan himself stated he didn’t understand the math behind some of the financial instruments that cause the crisis. So, how is Joe-blow from Perryville, Kentucky supposed to understand it and make rational decisions about how to regulate the industry? But, like we said, that’s for another post…
Schechter’s film features interviews with various financial players involved in the crisis including “Wall Street bankers, economists, a convicted white collar criminal, real estate brokers and victims of mortgage scams.” It explains how an estimated $197 trillion disappeared because of the elaborate and sophisticated financial frauds that went on for years before the crisis came to a head. Plunder also blames the media for not warning us or investigating the crisis in a timely way.
The premiere is April 29th at the National Arts Club which is located at 15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003-1796, (212) 674-8824.
If and when this film comes to Miami, we’ll be sure to announce the date and time.
And in case you’re wondering, this is what $197 trillion looks like…
$197,000,000,000,000.
