Right on the Money and on the Fraud

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2015)

'The Big Short' is a winner. Based on Michael Lewis book of the same title, it tells the sorry story of the fraud and deceit practiced on the American people, nay, on the world by Wall Streets finance capitalism. We know the culprits: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Bros., Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Wachovia, Crdit Suisse, UBS and on and on who invented financial instruments such as CDO, credit swaps and other fancy unintelligible names, based on mortgages, with the connivance of the credit agencies--Dow Jone, Standard and Poors and Fitch. 'The Big Short' with a light seriousness is a crash course on the duplicity of Wall Street investment bankers who earned large fees on junk bonds with triple A ratings; who bundled junk to palm off on an unsuspecting public looking for big gains by pandering to the snake oil exilir of getting rich quickly; and who feed on the niavety of the broad American have-nots with the dream of owning a home of their own. And so with some humor but much sadness are we lead through the byways of four different groups of bankers who saw the hoax for what it was and its impending implosion that would bring down the deck of cards of capitalism. And the took out bets on the market, by buying short. And they won big time! But the banks are still around, and the ratepayers footed the bailout, but at what cost! And we see this in the turmoil of the Republican party: for the discontent abroad in the US has thrown more than 25 percent of the population into poverty, loss of jobs, home, into heavy debt and no future for their children. And these banks have not reformed their ways...now they've come up with the same of gimmicks with a fancy name--something like beneficial financial tranche--as the play the same old mug's game. And like the Bourbons, t The cast is stellar--especially Christian Bale and Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling as well as the minor players. And like the Bourbons, in the words of Talleyrand, 'they learned nothing and forgot nothing', but the contempt they have for all of us. And to make the case stronger, the fools on the Supreme Court have strengthened the hands of big money and the oligopoly and the fat cats of Wall Street and the coupon clippers and the devil take the rest of us!