The Crime of Our Time

from Truthdig:



The Crime of Our Time
Posted on May 5, 2010


Danny Schechter’s new movie, “Plunder: The Crime of Our Time,” tells the story of the economic collapse as “a crime narrative as opposed to a mistakes narrative.”

Listen: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_crime_of_our_time_report_20100505/

A thankful kick.

presenting this as a crime frames this as though no problem exists and the people at these firms were an aberration, criminals, not like us. While one might call the behavior of the rating agencies fraudulent, most of the other action was easily within the law. If not, who is going to jail? If they aren't, why not? Specifically, what articles of the law did they violate? Gold Man Sacks wasn't alone in this, and it wasn't Wall Street Traders that got rid of Glass-Steagall, and this ignores thousands of mortgage brokers who were making money hand-over-fist selling ARMS they shouldn't have sold, and millions upon millions of people who squandered the wealth in their homes without considering who was going to pay for it all, who invested their money into funds demanding, damn it, high return on investment that can only come from a focus on short-term profits which meant moving our manufacturing base to places where we can get cheap clothes and food.

Calling this all "criminal" may well keep any of the structural changes from being made, since if it was criminal obviously nothing has to change with policies or laws, and that's simply wrong.

We really need a national conversation, a consciousness-raising about the actions of the past 40 or so years, the multiple causes and effects of how we got where we are. This kind of treatment seems more like a version of COPS on Wall Stret, almost sensationalizing it.

But thank you for the link. Still want to watch it...