Inside Job
Taylor Lewis
Accounting
03/10/2013
Inside Job
The movie “Inside Job” was a very controversial movie. It talked about the financial crisis and how it affected everyone. Personally, it made me angry. All of the big companies such as Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, Meryl Lynch, and many more, performed unethical activities. They went behind their customers back to bet against them just to make more money, and the statistics don’t lie. From 1978 to 2008 a banker’s regular salary went from $47,000 a year all the way to $100,000, which is a pretty big increase. Inside Job talks about how that happened and the events that led to the financial crisis. One of the reasons for the crisis was because of immoral decisions. After The Great Depression the industry was tightly regulated. Everything was fine for 40 year’s up until the 1980’s when Don Reagan, newly appointed Treasury Secretary and former Meryl Lynch CEO, pushed for deregulation. Without oversight, companies such as Meryl Lynch, and others like Goldman Sachs, started making risky investments. This is one of the reasons why the film made me angry, but also helped me realize what actually happened. We saw these companies start to become huge and gain more power, which in turn was one reason that led to the financial crisis. In my eyes they are responsible for some of the wrongdoings because if we were still regulated, the chances of the financial crisis would have been slimmer. During the Clinton administration deregulation continued. In the late 1990’s firms such as CitiGroup and Travelers merged and began to get so big that their failure could easily threaten the whole system. Little did we know that’s exactly what would happen. I do believe that there was wrongdoing here because the merger between CitiGroup and Travelers violated the Glass-Steegal Act put in place in 1934 after the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve did absolutely nothing and gave them an exemption for an entire year. During that time Larry
Accounting
03/10/2013
Inside Job
The movie “Inside Job” was a very controversial movie. It talked about the financial crisis and how it affected everyone. Personally, it made me angry. All of the big companies such as Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, Meryl Lynch, and many more, performed unethical activities. They went behind their customers back to bet against them just to make more money, and the statistics don’t lie. From 1978 to 2008 a banker’s regular salary went from $47,000 a year all the way to $100,000, which is a pretty big increase. Inside Job talks about how that happened and the events that led to the financial crisis. One of the reasons for the crisis was because of immoral decisions. After The Great Depression the industry was tightly regulated. Everything was fine for 40 year’s up until the 1980’s when Don Reagan, newly appointed Treasury Secretary and former Meryl Lynch CEO, pushed for deregulation. Without oversight, companies such as Meryl Lynch, and others like Goldman Sachs, started making risky investments. This is one of the reasons why the film made me angry, but also helped me realize what actually happened. We saw these companies start to become huge and gain more power, which in turn was one reason that led to the financial crisis. In my eyes they are responsible for some of the wrongdoings because if we were still regulated, the chances of the financial crisis would have been slimmer. During the Clinton administration deregulation continued. In the late 1990’s firms such as CitiGroup and Travelers merged and began to get so big that their failure could easily threaten the whole system. Little did we know that’s exactly what would happen. I do believe that there was wrongdoing here because the merger between CitiGroup and Travelers violated the Glass-Steegal Act put in place in 1934 after the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve did absolutely nothing and gave them an exemption for an entire year. During that time Larry