Anyone watch the HBO Film ...

[aggiesal]

Too Big to Fail?
I thought it was very well done.
It's a Docu-Drama with William Hurt playing the part of Hank Paulson,
and Paul Giamatti playing the part of Ben Bernanke.

The movie pretty much followed Hank Paulson and his decision to try
to avoid a Lehman Bros. bankruptcy, and AIG's failure.

About 1 Hr. into the movie, they do a great job, describing in English
what happened to the financial industry and why it was crashing.

Highly recommend it, if you haven't seen it.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

1. I have seen it.

There was some good acting.

[napi21]

2. Yep, I watched it the ther night on HBO. I wonder how much liberty was taken from the

truth? I know much of i was the real way it went down.

[aggiesal]

3. If only half is true, ...

and they still haven't done anything to fix the problems
that caused the 9/08 problem, then we're screwed.

[LiberalLoner]

5. May I suggest a great book to read on the subject? I am currently

in the middle of "The Big Short" and I highly recommend it.

[PA Democrat]

10. I just finished the book and I have recommended it

to several people who spew FOX talking points on the financial meltdown.

[LiberalLoner]

4. Yes, I thought it was riveting and frightening.

And it's worrisome that things aren't fixed yet (and might never be.)

[Hannah Bell]

6. did i hear right that paulson is painted as some kind of hero in that?

or was that something else?

[alsame]

8. It was sympathetic to him. He's portrayed as having

a conscience about the average American, he can't sleep, he gets physically ill because he's so upset, he has heart-to-heart chats with his wife, etc.

He - and to a lesser extent Geithner and Bernanke - are certainly credited with preventing a complete meltdown.

[Hannah Bell]

9. lol. thanks for the info.

[alsame]

7. I saw it, the acting was exceptional. However, I'm not sure how

much dramatic license was taken, so I don't know if it's a really accurate account of what happened.

Bernanke concerned about the legality of bailouts? - it would be nice if that were true.

Paulson worried about the average American? - not sure I'm believing that.

It's very frightening to know that we didn't impose strict regulation after that fiasco...there's another time bomb ticking.

[Spyderama]

11. A Long Time Coming

Speaking as a person who has been standing on this same soapbox for a long time, I, too, highly recommend the movie. I expect the only one to be beat it this year will be HBO's own upcoming Game Change. The only complaint I might have is that I would like to have seen a bit more about Greenspan and others setting the stage and making it clearer that Paulson, Bernanke, and President Obama were inheritors, not creators, of the housing bubble pop. I recommend that anyone who wants to know more should read Krugman's The Great Unraveling and Sirota's Hostile Takeover, both from 2005. You will be surprised how many of the same villains were at work then as now! Of course I recommend my own Paradigm Shift, too, but I realize with that I am just tooting my own horn. Toot! Toot!

[aggiesal]

12. It definitely portrayed Paulson, Paulson's staff and ...

Geitner as trying to keep the meltdown from happening.

I think what amazed me the most, is the selfishness of all
the Big Bank CEO's. When the meltdown was starting, none of them
felt it would affect their bank.

The CEO of Merrill Lynch played by Matthew Modine, I think was
the biggest a$$hole of them all. After being told that each WILL
take the money and start loaning it out, Modine's character didn't
want to take it because he didn't want the government telling him
how to distribute corporate bonuses.

Again, highly recommend it.

[davidpdx]

13. I'm going to check torrent sites

being outside the US I miss all of these type of shows.

[CTyankee]

14. I love Giamatta. I remember his dad, Bart, president of Yale...

[aggiesal]

15. Don't you mean Baseball Commissioner!!! n/t

[CTyankee]

16. Of course, he was president of Yale and then Baseball Commissioner!

Great combination, don't you think?

[aggiesal]

17. Yup, unfortunately he had to deal with Pete Rose ...

I don't think Paul has ever forgiven Rose.

[CTyankee]

18. Sorry, I don't know what the issue was...I'm not a big baseball fan, just a citizen of New Haven...

[uponit7771]

19. VERY accurate, Paulson was an ass...anyone working in finance knew what was happening

..and that he was being an idealist vs using common sense and unwinding things slowly then eventually in the end had to do what he didn't want to do anyway which was to nationalize the banks.

The banks STILL aren't lending at the rate they were during past 5-6% UE rates, the treasury sec should NOT have that much authority and deregulation was NOT what everyone wanted....that part was false.