The bustling world is for profit, and the bustling world is for profit.
This is the footnote of humanity throughout the documentary "Steal Yourself". This documentary filmed in 2009 analyzes the financial crisis that started in the United States in 2008 and eventually spread to the whole world. In the form of interviews and news materials, it reveals to us the beginning and end of this financial disaster according to the time node.
Pressing many financial expertise aside for the time being, the most shocking part of the whole film is probably the most greedy side of human nature nakedly presented in front of the audience. In this food chain centered on credit, the participants in each link are maximizing their personal interests: lending institutions disregard the lender's repayment ability and have no bottom line to lend, and resell the creditor's rights to the investment bank for income, and the investment bank will Various claims are carefully packaged into financial derivatives (CDO: collateralized debt obligation) and sold to investors for huge benefits. In this chain of interests, each financial institution earns a lot of money, which further boosts the appetite and infinitely increases leverage, thereby pushing the risk to a climax and laying the groundwork for the financial crisis.
The whole film followed up with a large number of businessmen, politicians, financial reporters, and scholars in the global financial industry, and a large number of high-level financial leaders, scholars, and government officials colluded with each other, creating a complete closed loop of interests. In the face of interests, moral constraints appear fragile, and the law has become a tool that can be manipulated. Money corrodes the government, making it difficult to introduce regulatory mechanisms, academics are bought to be the mouthpieces of bankers, and they advocate for their interests, and rating agencies endorse high-risk financial products. The interests of bankers and regulation became a game of two forces, and regulation was ultimately defeated.
Another highlight of the film is probably the gang-up of various interest groups under the so-called democratic and transparent appearance of the United States.
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