This is a story set against the background of the 2008 financial crisis, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as the protagonist, and various dignitaries in Wall Street and Washington mediating and making decisions in response to the collapse of the financial system.
The protagonist Paulson wants to solve the problem of the collapse of the financial system in the United States and even the world. The mess he faces includes the crocodile CEO of the investment bank who is addicted to eating meat with his blood and mouth open. , Congress, like a budget-conscious housewife, asks why about everything, and the people are ready to rise up and bury Wall Street at any time. This is simply a horror movie.
In the face of the predicament, Paulson's succession and transformation are: at first, the market continued to decline, and Washington let Lehman go bankrupt, giving the public confidence that the government would not be soft on Wall Street; what followed was a further deterioration of the situation, and Goldman Sachs couldn't hold it anymore. Morgan couldn't hold it anymore, and the United States couldn't hold it anymore; the smart Geithner thought of a way to turn around, let the banks merge and give the market confidence, but the crocodiles didn't like to make friends; so they had to continue to borrow money from banks and use more The big capital activates the weak market and finally solves the crisis. This is another suspense movie where everyone is asking what to do, and every traditional method fails one after another.
At the climax of the story, Paulson bowed affectionately to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Ms. Nancy Pelosi, and the bill was finally passed after twists and turns. Bankers were locked in a room to study whether the government gave money. Take, it's really like a comedy.
This TV movie is a special production on HBO TV that aired in May 2011.
The film is based on New York Times chief correspondent and columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin's best-selling book, which topped the nonfiction list for six months in 2009. The author himself also appeared as a reporter in the film.
The repair system
crash is not terrible, the terrible thing is that it crashed without buying insurance.
It's not scary to have a credit card maxed out. What's scary is that credit overdrafts are blacklisted.
The financial crisis is not terrible, the terrible thing is that you lose your job and your reputation during the crisis. Anyone who comes out knows that being able to handle a crisis is the ability.
The stock market trades company dividends, and futures trades future expectations. These genius inventions first greatly promoted commercial civilization, and then satisfied the distribution of wealth among different classes. Obviously, where there is money to be made, capital will be attracted immediately.
Risk only arises when speculative capital enters the market.
When the financial market is constantly driven by transaction funds and manipulated by long-short competition, it is unknown whether this genius invention has deviated from the original design. What is certain now is that when smarter players design derivative products to protect risks, it is no longer an industry forecasting model relying on the real economy, but a self-running roulette game.
The big roulette wheel was openly placed on Wall Street to gamble.
The brains of the smartest human beings are bet here, the future thoughts and creativity of human beings are bet here, and the bet will continue here, and there will be more and bigger bets here.
Whenever someone is in a bad mood, a crisis occurs.
Whenever there is bad weather, earthquakes and tsunamis, a crisis occurs.
Whenever a scandal is exposed and the truth is revealed, a crisis occurs.
Whenever computers freeze and Manhattan prostitutes go on strike, there is a crisis.
Many people can't figure out at first, why insure risk products and reinsurance insurance, how can such a perfect system still be risky?
One explanation given by Paulson in the film is that AIG, a "stupid" insurance company, unrestrainedly underwritten the toxic derivatives of many investment banks in order to collect management fees, which are billions of dollars. .
So once AIG goes bankrupt, other insured banks will follow. That would be an absolute disaster.
The basis of this system is money, and the essence of money is credit.
When it comes to credit, it's that simple. If one credit card is maxed out, use another credit card to repay, another credit card expires, and a third credit card is used to make up. Every time there is an economic crisis, a new credit card can solve the problem.
This credit card is used by the public to take out loans to buy houses, investment banks are used to trade derivatives, and insurance companies are used to preserve the value of derivatives. Everyone was happy, as long as the guy in the MARGIN CALL didn't calculate the truth.
This credit card is the root cause of this crisis.
This credit card is also the ultimate solution to this crisis.
Living in an era with a highly developed financial system, we can be very happy.
If we can meet the following conditions at the same time, we will have no worries about food and clothing from birth:
1. There are several banks willing to give us credit cards, and the sum of these quotas is enough for our lifetime consumption.
2. There is no handling fee for inter-bank repayment. Raise the card with the card, worry-free.
3. The bank will not withdraw the credit line in its lifetime.
In fact, the first condition has been fulfilled in theory. According to incomplete statistics, 22 banks in China are now conducting credit card business, and there are more than 200 credit card products. Although the theoretical limit ranges from 1,000 to unlimited, the actual limit can usually reach 10. ten thousand.
The second condition does not exist now. Several state-owned banks once offered free inter-bank repayment in order to expand their business, but they soon stopped.
The third condition is to test the IQ of banks. Regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign, they are cautious about issuing credit cards to retirees.
Between the last two facts, we can't thank the bank, the banker. They are not destined to be our parents, no matter how developed the banking system is.
So in the harsh reality, we can only pray these three prayers if we want to enjoy the benefits of the banking system.
First of all, you have to work hard and pray to get credit from the bank.
Then I pray that various online payment systems will be more developed, and the fees for inter-bank repayment can be avoided through various cumbersome procedures.
Most importantly, we have to pray that banks will continue to expand their credit lines to meet growing inflationary needs. Above all, pray that the banks don't blacklist us when we're down.
Clearly, banks will not be so kind.
Even if everything goes well, once it's our 60th birthday, their system will suddenly freeze our credit line, so we'd better die before the next repayment date or go to jail.
As you can imagine, this is bound to happen.
Philosophically speaking, a financial crisis will be inevitable. Booms and busts are one.
When this outbreak occurred in 2008, we first went back to the source.
This time we found Wall Street's greed.
Greedy Wall Street CEOs, like crocodiles, earn tens of millions of dollars. This is almost equivalent to a black-hearted card company. Their executives hold hundreds of millions of high salaries. Where does this money come from?
This is literally the equivalent of charging a much higher repayment fee than 2% for every credit card purchase. If it weren't for these fees, we would only cover the portion of the debt we spent, because of these fees, we would soon be doomed, and we wouldn't live to finish 200 banks. The only peace of mind now is that we don't have to consider that the credit line will be locked by the bank when we retire.
At this time, Wall Street executives are justifiable. If they reduce their salary, even if they do not continue to increase their salary, the innovation ability of the entire Wall Street will decline, the smart brain will stop the design of financial products, and capitalism in the United States will lose its driving force for growth. .
If you don't believe me, try it?
Washington dared not try, and no one dared to try.
What we saw was that when a card slave went bankrupt, the unscrupulous businessmen of the card company kidnapped the bank, they said, to give him more loans so that he could repay the previous loans.
The bank clearly knows that these black-hearted merchants are just to charge more fees, but what can be done?
To use a word of our socialism: the bank is owned by the public, and the work is owned by oneself.
Even if Washington has no choice but to drink poison to quench its thirst, this is the solution to this crisis.
It takes eight years for the president to do a good job, and eight years for the treasurer to be a good secretary. When a crisis occurs, if it is not handled well, it is a failure in life and a lifetime event.
What once and for all, cure the symptoms?
When was the earth truly peaceful? Not to mention a financial system.
It's hard for a reality show
to remember a movie where so many "real people" appeared in the movie, and they were all played by actors. Some even say that this film is a documentary within a feature film, while the other two 2011 Oscar-winning documentaries about the financial crisis, Inside job and Mike Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, are called feature films within a documentary. The implication is that Too big to fall's description of the crisis is too documentary, while the other two are too dramatic.
Even Americans, who don't care about the news in the financial field, will be confused about all kinds of men in suits watching this film. (On the contrary, American audiences can see a few comedy stars in the movie, but they don't know how they feel when they see these comedians solving the financial crisis seriously.)
"Paulson" and "Bernanke" were also shortlisted for the 2011 AI Awards. The nominations for the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor at the Beauty Awards are a very festive event, and "Bernanke" was also nominated for the Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor, but in the end he only won the Best Supporting Actor of the Screen Actors Guild. prize. After watching the film, the audience can't help but gossip. Do the two often eat together like that? How many economic decisions are the two negotiated during the meal?
The portrayal of the three political figures in the film is in place.
The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who in reality every public speech will shock the market, speaks in a soft and slow manner.
Timothy Geithner, then president of the Reserve Bank of New York, was a young and promising man with insight into the nature of the problem.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in crisis, bald, tall, gritty, deep.
William Hurt's Paulson is indeed remarkable. Everyone is fortunate to see on TV the fierceness of a US Treasury secretary who threatened an investment bank executive to buy Lehman, and was threatened by Chinese financial officials to sell government bonds. At that time, the kind of panic, anxiety and crisis, the firmness when getting up at night and throwing away the tranquilizers, the gentleman when he knelt down to the Speaker of the House of Representatives was magnanimous.
Some people even say that this film is Paulson's autobiography at all. But obviously, Paulson himself would not agree with this statement, his personal experience is much richer.
In the face of a crisis, even this big boss with a three-dimensional personality and a tall stature is so helpless and vulnerable, the audience will undoubtedly be very involved in the play. And those dispatches were all private jets, and they were thousands of miles away two hours ago, and the executives who opened their mouths were billions of dollars, which was much more one-sided by comparison.
Especially when the bank executives were called into the door for a meeting, each comment made the audience sweat on behalf of the TV station. If they were not careful, they would have to suffer a lawsuit. Instead, each comment was enjoyable, in the form of Paulson's narration.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is a star, and even though I used to be his boss, he's got his wings now.
Morgan Stanley's CEO, John Mack, was a fighter who used to yell, let's kill someone.
Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is a selfish guy who used to mess with me.
Citi's CEO Vikram Pandit, no one knows if he is working on Citi or whether Citi is working on him.
Another character that will catch the eyes of audiences all over the world is of course Warren Buffett. He doesn't make many appearances, like an old urchin, but his calm gestures and the panic of other Wall Streeters in Washington just form a very ironic contrast.
Jiang is still old and hot, and investment should be cautious.
For crisis, benevolent see benevolence.
The film interprets the origin of the crisis and how it was handled from a political point of view.
Screenwriter Pete Gould is a very good TV producer. The TV series "Breaking bad" written and produced by him has swept Emmys, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. The Writers Guild of America Award in 2012 was his own harvest moment. He won the Best Screenplay Award for "Poison Maker" and the Best Adapted Screenplay Award for "Too Big to Fail."
Gould was asked in an interview why he chose Paulson as the center of the crisis, and his answer was because of work experience.
As we all know, Paulson has been working on Wall Street before joining the Bush administration, and he himself is the promoter of the high salary on Wall Street. Before leaving Goldman, he was one of the highest earners. And, at the time of the crisis, most of those key CEOs were Goldman Sachs graduates. Paulson is one of the promoters of deregulation and a policymaker who calls for government bailouts in times of crisis. Of course, his mother didn't want him to work with Bush.
The reporter bluntly asked the next question, is Paulson a hero in the film, and is there a villain in the film?
The standard answer for screenwriters is: This is a very good question. Heroes sometimes don't all have feats, and villains sometimes surprise us. Paulson is just the central figure in the film, and it's up to the audience to judge what he did and what he did.
Clearly, even with a lavish TV cast, Paulson's personal reputation cannot be washed away in this film starring Paulson.
In Capitalism: A Love Story, Mike Moore interviewed several lawmakers who questioned that in just a few days, a bill had been drafted and passed, and $700 billion had been lent out, mostly to Paulson's former colleagues. They, the public is completely unaware. Clearly, some of these loans will still remain in the pockets of executives as bonuses. Mike Moore even mobilized low-income people, resolutely cut off the supply, and fought against the banks. Some communities even set up mutual aid associations to try their best to disrupt the re-transaction of the property after the bank repossessed it. When the house cannot be bought, the original owner can repossess it.
The documentary Inside job, narrated by Matt Damon, also raised the same question. Those with academic backgrounds are speaking for capital and excuse Wall Street. When the crisis hit, it was taxpayers who paid the bill.
Market driving force
Why do these people hold meetings when a crisis occurs, and why should the crisis be solved only by these people who created it?
The crisis on Wall Street, what does it have to do with the British, what does it have to do with the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese?
Isn't Warren Buffett worth 40 billion yuan? Why does everyone want to ask him for help, and why does the crisis seem to be really resolved when he takes action?
This can all be answered in one word, confidence.
The biggest lesson from this crisis is that markets are driven by confidence.
Where is the confidence in the market?
It could be on a Wall Street executive’s private jet, it could be on government employment data, it could be in a supermarket before Christmas, it could be in an iPhone app.
When major institutions have a short-term consensus and a long-term game, the market will have confidence and the pattern will be stable.
When the U.S. stock market rises, the Chinese stock market can follow suit, regardless of whether the company's dividends are distributed.
When Buffett sells 5 billion yuan, it will not only bring back more 5 billion yuan, but also bring about a short-term 6% rebound in Goldman Sachs stock price.
This is faith.
Confidence is the determination displayed by government officials, Paulson's face, Bernanke's briefcase, Geithner's treadmill.
Confidence is a consensus. It is the performance of regulators, the objective neutrality of rating agencies, the correct interpretation of media experts, and the joys and sorrows of traders.
Confidence is nothing, there is history to learn from, and it cannot be repeated.
At the end of the film, the TARP Act was passed, the market was activated, and several banks that accounted for 77% of the nation's assets quickly repaid their loans. They are afraid of the government dictating, and they are even more afraid that the bonus will be reduced.
No one can prove that 700 billion saved the financial system, and no one can claim that the market will automatically repair itself without that 700 billion bill.
The only certainty is that this way of raising the credit limit will only bring about a sequel to the crisis. Regardless of when and how much the next crisis erupts, and regardless of who is in the Treasury secretary position then, it is safe to say that the crisis will be lifted and the system will continue to function. Only Wall Streeters get bonuses, not less, only more.
Buffett said, Mr. Market is always wrong, he is a lunatic, sometimes greedy and sometimes fearful, he can't figure it out at all.
Confidence in the market must also be a nerve head.
Be sure to pray that this nerve head keeps going up and down. Because once he gets smart and keeps moving in one direction, the trouble is not far away.
This time it is a bad situation. These investment banks have been pushed to the front of the cliff, and even worse, they will all fall down. Not only will the hard-earned money of taxpayers be lost, but the industrial pattern and commodity civilization accumulated over decades will be destroyed.
But next time, if these institutions have a comprehensive consensus, the market will rise wildly, and all taxpayers' assets will be brought into the bubble, their bonuses will be more and more, and only a better market can satisfy their increasingly large bonus system. At the same time, the market will continue to rise. What kind of crisis would that be?
The establishment of the financial system is like an invented money printing machine. Whoever can operate can occupy a favorable position in social distribution.
In an agricultural society, we can achieve wealth redistribution through violent revolution.
In an era of excessive kingship, we can obtain legitimate social status and wealth through honorary rewards.
In the age of capital, we can obtain high commissions in wealth distribution by mastering the factors of production.
In the financial age, all the rules are different.
These elements are complex, diverse and uncontrollable. Even hormones are involved.
Biologist studies have confirmed that on Wall Street, traders with stronger hormones have a higher success rate. Those with longer ring fingers prove that the hormone levels in the mother's embryo are sufficient and will be smarter.
Let's forgive them. Spending more money on prostitutes is a spending stimulus. Just like we smoke and drink coffee, they need recreational means like drugs and prostitutes.
If he happens to be your financial advisor again, shouldn't you support him even more?
These hormonal Wall Streeters, they are God's favorite.
They are convinced of the Matthew effect, unbridled, and will not look back.
They have smart brains, they have been trained in an excellent educational system, they have access to information on the front lines of trading, they have built and perfected trading systems, and they are invincible. Once financial markets are established as a new means of distributing wealth, they must be at the top of the pyramid.
As ordinary people, in this era, maybe we can only pray for more financial crises, more market ups and downs, and the wealth of society can be redistributed from "Wall Street", and we will have the opportunity to meet those crocodiles in suits, Be equal in personality.
God, let the crises come more often. Otherwise, prostitutes in Manhattan will keep going up!
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