Filmstalker: Moore to document world financial crisis

Michael Moore is set to deliver a documentary looking into the world's financial crisis and exposing the truth behind the events, or the truth as Michael Moore and his team see it.

The as yet untitled documentary has been announced for a release on October the 2nd and will look into the root causes of the economic crisis as well as the behind the scenes moves and deals in the corporate and political arenas.

What isn't so clear in the story is exactly what the film will be focusing on, and so far it looks like it will be the American economy and businesses rather than the complete world picture, something which is probably far too big to be dealt with in a film under two hours, under a week if you ask me.

Moore seems to apportion blame straight to the source with his comment in The Hollywood Reporter:

"The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn't have enough wealth...So they systematically set out to fleece the American people."

Well it's the wealthy to blame then. Well I can't really speak for America, but here in the UK I work in the financial industry, and much of this has been soul destroying for those really working behind the scenes, and we're just not allowed to talk about it.

Things aren't as bad as they are portrayed in the media, and the media are hugely responsible for increasing the focus and impact of the issue, even this report says such things as "meltdown", "collapse of the world economy", and other hugely dramatic phrases.

Well I'm sitting here thinking it's not half as bad as it was made out, and the world economy has not melted down but seems to be moving forward, slowly and painfully, but it's not destroyed.

What bothers me about Michael Moore running this documentary is that he'll have to find some big bad guys to make the enemy of the piece, and here there are many bad guys, but through decisions of varying degrees of premeditation. For instance the UK Prime Minister selling all of the UK's Gold reserves at the worst price of Gold ever to ensure the economy kept going and then instigating the market where financial institutions should lend money to people and business right left and centre. Oh, and that was all before any crisis hit.

There are easy, publicly announced targets, and then there are the real causes, the causes which should be researched without emotion or predetermined need for a bad guy.

The other issue is the sheer scope of the film, surely the documentary isn't going to look at the entire world economy, political and corporate situation? Moore's quote suggests America only, whereas the CEO of one of the companies behind the film says that this is a film that...

"...everyone can relate to..."

Relate maybe, but it won't be investigating the issues of other world economic crashes, or will it, and if it does is it going to devote the time and unbiased investigation to them or are we going to end up with a witch hunt?

It's funny, I loved Michael Moore's documentaries when they are about topics I have no involvement in, but now it comes to an area I have a personal stake in, I'm a little concerned.

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WOW. your comments on this issue are about the most level headed i've read on my internet comings and goings yet...and seeing as how you do work in the industry, i'll take your word that you probably do in fact, know what you're talking about.

Here in America, we have this whole "working class poor" thing. People are classified as poor or low income. Yet they have 2 cars in the driveway, a microwave, washer, dryer and flatscreen tv mounted on their wall.

the important things to remember as our savings collapse and or investment futures get bleaker and bleaker, is that it IS only money. We'll still have the things that make us get up and go to work in the mornings, and as you say, things ARENT as bad as they are made out. Things are just very hard for a very large number of people. All we can do is put our best foot forward and hope for the best. And god, i hope th worst case scenario doesn't ever come about.

On the case of this movie, I am torn. Moore can sure pack a wallop when he has something to say. Sicko was the exact kind of shaming our health care industry needed. The main problem i do have is that his vision is very one sided. He'd never go after Obama, Peloski, Reid or any of the politicians here in the states that have spent basically the gross national product of the entire country for the next 4 years in one week. He'd never go after Clinton or Carter, who put these programs in place to shovel high interest mortgages to people who couldn't afford them to buy minority votes. But you can bet he'll go after Bush.

Who knows? maybe he'll come to the same optimist outlook that i come to in all this and use the movie to remind us of what we should really be striving for.

I know i'm just sick of the way we're witchhunting wealthy or "formerly" wealthy folks in the states.

Posted by: mogulus | May 22, 2009 4:34 PM

Thanks Mogulus, I will point out I'm not some financial analyst, but I do work within an organisation that is at the very heart of some of the shouting going on over in this country.

It sounds the same over here as you say it is in America, there are many families who are claiming to be in the same situation and yet have so much.

There is no doubt though that there are people who really are struggling and fighting poverty, who were once borderline and above and are now really hard hit and have lost everything. However we're not all facing economic ruin, hard times sure, cutbacks and loss of savings, but not as bad as the media says.

One interesting thing to consider is about the devaluing of pensions. Although the overall plan may be worth less at the moment, the money being invested can buy way more units, units that will increase in value when the market rises. So you can see there are ups and downs throughout.

I think your hopes are right, we're not going to see the worst case scenario occurring, but it's going to get tough.

You're right though, he can be very fair, and the dogged pursuit of the truth can provide amazing results. I do hope he doesn't just go after the wealthy and goes to the real causes of the problem.

I'll defer to your comments mogulus and believe that he will come through with something positive.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | May 22, 2009 7:12 PM