Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis

Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis

2018, Economics  -   17 Comments
6.04
12345678910
Ratings: 6.04/10 from 134 users.

The 2008 financial crisis brought forth an overwhelming sense of distrust and fury from consumers. It's a condition that continues to fester and boil to this day, and its lessons remain relevant and timely. Produced by VICE News, Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis is a feature-length documentary that attempts to break down the complex series of judgments and errors that contributed to the crisis, and examines the consequences that continue to resound in the lives of everyday Americans over a decade later.

The film's major strength lies in the participation of each principal player, including Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, President George W. Bush and world-renowned investor Warren Buffett. Through lengthy and incredibly detailed interviews, we learn about each of their backgrounds, individual areas of expertise, and the steps they took to curb an approaching financial catastrophe.

The financial crisis was precipitated by a mortgage boom which was soon undercut by shaky housing prices, faltering economic growth and a complete lack of discipline on Wall Street. The writing on the wall became apparent, and it predicted nothing short of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Global investment banks like Bear Sterns were soon bailed out by the federal government. Sensing that these privileged institutions had successfully negotiated a massive heist, the public outcry was deafening. According to subjects interviewed in the film, much of this consumer fury was driven by misunderstandings and poor communication.

The film details how each central player worked with politicians to influence and enact legislation to avoid a total collapse, the short-term fixes that served as a band-aid to a more enduring dilemma and the public relations struggles that played out in concert with the crisis. Viewers will also receive insights on how the crisis reverberated throughout our political spectrum, and went a long way into determining the elections of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis is perhaps the most comprehensive, well-produced and clearly articulated overview of the crisis to date.

Directed by: John Maggio

More great documentaries

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

17 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Solatle
Solatle
3 months ago

Every central bank in every country is owned by the Rothschild family and its bankster friends. The International Bank of Settlements is the central bank of central banks and is owned by the same motherphukkers. These mothers own almost all countries and put on the charades of democracy behind which they hide.
Since the 1700s, these mothers have been creating all major wars and all economic swings--the boom-and-burst cycles. They promote division and antagonism among people along the meaningless political ideologies, the racial lines, the gender lines, the cultural lines, and the socio-economic class lines. They divided the world into two camps--the US-led fascist bloc and the USSR-led communist bloc after the WW2; both are totalitarianism in practice--one allows some private property while the other does not. They have committed all political assassinations around the world and started internal uprisings or coups in many countries. Their wet dream is the one world-government with reduced population. Their mo is to break people's spirit and turn them into compliant servants through the political and economic turmoils.
The 2008 crisis was one of those planned wealth-transferring tactics through which the middle-class is broken financially and spiritually. These broken people are busy collecting "bread" and cannot put up a fight against the mothers' oppression.

Maddy G
Maddy G
2 years ago

I just wanna know 2 things:
1) Who paid for this banquet?
2) How much was it?

David
David
2 years ago

While the banksters are total generates, they did not cause the crisis. America's external debt had surpassed what it could pay in the late 90's, borrowing 2 billion a day. You cannot send all production off shore and remain solvent. The war in the Middle East had already been decided upon, thus the stolen election to put in the GOP who were seen as the more ruthless and capable of waging war.

What the banksters did was to devise a fraudulent means to keep extracting profit in a system that had already hit the wall. When the crisis finally broke out, it merely broke at it weakest link. Blaming the banksters is used to portray the crisis as the result of corrupt individuals, when it is due to a socioeconomic system well passed its use by date

Brandie
Brandie
2 years ago

"The Public thinks this was a ballout for Wallstreet!! It's because everything was so intertwined and we had to stop the bleeding!!"

Yeah No sh*t. That's WHY the public was pissed. What laws came about to FIX and clean up Wallstreet since then? What parties were held responsible for this mess since then?
Oh right. None. I guess I'm more amazed that it took them til 2018 to try and justify this cr*p.

Wrenchmonkey
Wrenchmonkey
3 years ago

This movie should be called"How chasr bank mugged America".

Troy Turton
Troy Turton
3 years ago

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, President George W. Bush and world-renowned investor Warren Buffett. CAUSED the Catastrophe.

Ted
Ted
4 years ago

Doesn't tell the whole story and tries to put a favorable light upon the bailout. The trillions would have been better spent on the people if they truly wanted to prevent a depression. Millions of people out of work and living in tents? Sounds like a depression to me ! Watch 'Global Meltdown" instead.

Gigit
Gigit
4 years ago

I agree that the trio (Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson) genuinely attempted to prevent an all-out depression, BUT focus should not be taken away from the fact that they caused it in the first place - unabated Wall Street greed fueled by profit when they should have been regulating it. Furthermore, they would not and will not hang Wall Street and let it twist in the wind. Why? Because they are a part of Wall Street. When they finish their prestigious government stint, they default back to the private sector (Wall Street) for lucrative positions. Government, Wall Street and the Federal Reserve have an incestuous relationship. They will hang the public first before they attack one of their own. The public is always left cleaning up the mess after these pin-striped suits are done with their wild partying. This film is a clever propaganda.

Gary
Gary
4 years ago

Those guys should be in jail or hung

Gary
Gary
4 years ago

such a bunch of lies. Help the American people. What a Fing joke. Read the book The Creature from Jeckyll Island. About how the fed was created and why, and what they do. They have been responsible for crisis' year after year and the American people pay for their screw ups and they're losses.

CAPNCARNY
CAPNCARNY
4 years ago

A documentary in which the very criminals responsible absolve themselves and rationalize their criminal actions.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

Documentaries allow rebuttal. They get a balanced view. Charles Ferguson gave all these guys a chance to explain their point of view in light of the evidence. This is propaganda. Shame on all of the participants.