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The G.O.P. Economic Meltdown

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"The great cause of this [financial] crisis is the incredible greed and selfishness
that exist in the ruling elite of America. They have no shame."
— Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in 2009 speech

Timeline Early History   •   Bush Bankrupting The Country   •   Obama Fixing The Disaster Historical  Events 1792 March-April: U.S. financial crisis dubbed the 'Panic of 1792', during which securities lost 25 percent of their value. 1873 Sept 20: The financial 'Panic of 1873' swept the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures, triggering the worldwide Long Depression that lasted 65 months (until March 1879). 1893 June 27: The financial 'Panic of 1893' was a crash of the New York stock market caused by a run on the gold supply, the worst economic crisis to hit the nation in its history to that point. 1907 Oct 21: The financial 'Panic of 1907' began with a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company of New York, dragging stocks down 37%. 1910 Nov: The secret meeting of U.S. bankers and financiers and government officials on Jekyl Island in Georgia to design a central bank for the U.S. 1913 Dec 23: Enactment by Congress of the Federal Reserve Act that created the Federal Reserve central banking system in the U.S.; immediately signed into law by President Wilson. 1929 Oct 24: Beginning of the stock market crash – referred to since as 'Black Thursday'. 1929 Oct 29: Further decline of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index; the infamous 'Black Tuesday' collapse of the New York stock market that began America's 'Great Depression'. 1932 July 8: The Dow-Jones Industrial Average index hit bottom at 41.22 points, a loss of 89.19 percent since September 1929. 1933 May 27: In response to the economic crisis, Congress passed the First Glass-Steagall Act. 1933 June 16: Congress passed the Second Glass-Steagall Act, which founded the Federal Deposit Insurance Company, and separated commercial (consumer) banking from investment (speculative) banking. 1935 Aug 14: The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt. 1936 Feb: The Secretary of The Treasury and the Comptroller of The Currency were removed from the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve, so that the federal government actually has no vote on any matter. National Debt in 1980: ONE TRILLION DOLLARS which included the entire VietNam War 1981 Aug 13: Kemp-Roth Tax Cut signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. 1982 Oct 1: Congress passed the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which deregulated the savings & loan industry (cause of the Savings & Loan Crisis of the 1980s & 1990s); signed into law by President Reagan on 15 October. 1986 Oct 23: Tax Reform Act of 1986 signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. 1986 Nov: Wall Street arbitrageur Ivan Boesky pled guilty to securities fraud; he also revealed details of insider trading deals with financier Michael Milken and others, which led to an S.E.C. probe of Wall Street investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. Boesky served two years at Lompoc Federal Prison; Milken served 22 months at Pleasanton, California; both were banned for life from working in the securities industry. 1987 Jan 8: The Dow Jones Industrial Average index closed above 2000 for the first time. Mid-1987: Beginning of the Reagan-Bush Savings & Loan Crisis; 747 U.S. S&L/thrift banks failed. The total cost is estimated at $160 billion {$230 billion in 2010 dollars} including Bush 41's direct bailout of $125 billion {$180 billion in 2010 dollars}, paid for by taxpayers. 1987 June 2: President Reagan announced his nomination of Alan Greenspan to succeed Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve; Greenspan served for 18 years. National Debt in 1992: FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS after the Reagan-Bush Years Clinton's First Term: Increase of National Debt slowed to 25 percent, reaching 5 trillion dollars. 1998 April 3: The Dow Jones Industrial Average index's first close above 9,000. 1999 Nov 12: Sen. Phill Gramm [GOP-TX] successfully gutted the Glass-Steagall Banking Acts of 1933 with passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, a major cause of the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2008. 2000 Dec 14: Sen. Phil Gramm [GOP-TX] pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, deregulating all derivatives trading (a major cause of The Enron Scandal in 2001); signed into law by President Clinton on December 21. Clinton's Second Term: Increase of National Debt slowed still further; Clinton balanced the budget and created a Treasury surplus.          "[Clinton] was the first Democrat to be re-elected since Franklin D. Roosevelt and, during his eight years in office, the nation enjoyed the greatest peace and prosperity in its history. Unemployment fell to the lowest rate in modern times, while inflation declined to a 30-year low and welfare rolls shrank. Crime fell to levels unmatched in half a century and home ownership increased to historic highs. Clinton submitted the first balanced federal budget in decades and banked a staggering surplus. He failed to reform healthcare but elevated environmental protection to unmatched levels."          — Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2004 George W. Bush  Bankrupting  America National Debt in 2001: 5.728 TRILLION DOLLARS on the Monday after Bush took office 2001 Dec: Working Minds Philosophy Essay #18 "The Stock Market Casino" 2002 March: The NASDAQ Composite index bottomed in the 1900s, a drop of 62% since March 2000. 2002 July 1: The NASDAQ Composite index closed at 5-year low of 1,403.80; DOW down to 9,109.79. 2002 Oct 9: The Dow Jones Industrial Average index bottomed at 7,286.27 (down 2.9% for a 5-year low). 2003 June 3: Mysterious federal ceremony claiming Republican victory in ending regulation of U.S. banks. 2004 Feb: Working Minds Philosophy Essay #40 "Paleo-Capitalism" 2004 April: Hearing at the S.E.C. that gave the five top Wall Street investment banks permission to release capital reserves to invest in 'exotic instruments'. 2005 Sept: Working Minds Philosophy Essay #54 "F*** The Fed" 2006 Feb 1: Ben Bernanke sworn in as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, succeeding longtime Fed Chair Alan Greenspan. 2006 June: Henry Paulson sworn in as Secretary of Treasury, kept by Obama thru 2010. 2006 Sept: Nouriel Roubini of N.Y.U. warned at the I.M.F. meeting that the U.S. faced a severe housing crash, soaring oil prices, declining consumer prices, and defaults on mortgages worth trillions of dollars. 2006 Oct 19: The Dow Jones Industrial Average index closed above 12,000 for the first time, at $12,029.50. 2007 April 2: New Century Financial Corp. of Orange County, California -- second largest sub-prime lender in the U.S. -- filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 2008 March 14 (Friday): The Fed announced a 28-day 'backstop' loan agreement with JPMorgan Chase to prop up the liquidity of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns; the Fed announced later that evening that the loan guarantee would not be available on Monday, triggering a panic among investors. 2008 March 16: JPMorgan Chase agreed to buy Bear Stearns at $2/share, but foisted $29B of sub-prime paper onto the Fed. 2008 March 17 (Monday): The stock price of Bear Stearns plunged to $30 per share; JPMorgan Chase eventuslly paid roughly $10 per share for Bear Stearns (minus the toxic paper foisted on the Fed). 2008 July: Working Minds Philosophy Essay #78 "The Robber Barons" 2008 Sept 7 (Sunday): Henry Paulson agreed to a government takeover (i.e. bailout) of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac; actual cash outlay was eventually $34.2B to Fannie Mae and $51.7B to Freddie Mac – while $5.4 trillion in outstanding and very risky mortgage debt remain on the books. 2008 Sept 9: Lehman Brothers stock plunged 45 percent. 2008 Sept 14: Under pressure to complete negotiations started in November 2007, Bank of America bought Wall Street investment bank Merrill Lynch for $50 billion worth of BofA stock, or about $29 per share (a 38 percent premium over book value, but a 61 percent discount to the September 2007 market price). 2008 Sept 15 (Monday): Giant stock broker/mortgage lender Lehman Brothers filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 2008 Sept 15 (Monday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 504 points, the largest one-day loss since 11 September 2001. 2008 Sept 16 (Tuesday): The Fed agreed to a 'secured loan facility' for up to $85B to insurer A.I.G. in exchange for 80 percent equity in the company. 2008 Sept 17 (Wednesday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index dropped 450 points: down 8% for the week, and then back up on Thursday & Friday. 2008 Sept 17 (Wednesday): Gold rose $70 per ounce, the largest one-day jump in history. 2008 Sept 18 (Thursday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index climbed 410 points. 2008 Sept 19 (Friday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index climbed 368 points. 2008 Sept 21 (Sunday): Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two major investment banks in the United States, both confirmed that they would become traditional bank holding companies, bringing an end to the era of investment banking on Wall Street. 2008 Sept 23 Capitalist Warren Buffett bought $5B of stock in Goldman Sachs. 2008 Sept 25: The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision siezed Washington Mutual Bank after a ten-day run withdrew 9 percent of assets; JPMorgan Chase paid $1.9B for Washington Mutual Bank later that day. 2008 Sept 26: Wachovia Bank stock plunged 27 percent, while depositers withdrew $5B (1 percent of assets) on the same day. 2008 Sept 29: The F.D.I.C. announced the takeover of Wachovia's operations by Citigroup, a temporary measure intended to prevent Wachovia from failing. 2008 Oct 3: Wells Fargo agreed to acquire failing Wachovia for $15.1B in stock, which nullified the Citigroup deal. (Citigroup is pursuing claims for $60B in damages.) 2008 Oct 3: Congress passed a $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill. 2008 Oct 6 (Monday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index plunged below 10,000 for the first time since 2004. 2008 Oct 7 (Tuesday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index dipped over 500 points. 2008 Oct 6-7: Global stock market losses of $6.5 trillion (per Time Magazine, 10/2008) 2008 Oct 8: The I.M.F. predicted that the U.S. economy will grow just 0.1% next year, its worst rate in 18 years. 2008 Oct 8 (Wednesday): Nikkei Index plunged 9.4 percent; Indonesia shut down the country's exchange after the key index plunged more than 10 percent; Moscow's MICEX stock exchange shut down until Friday after losing more than 14 percent in the first half-hour of trading; Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 5.2 percent; India's Sensex sank 4.3 percent; South Korea's Kospi Index lost 5.8 percent; Taiwan's key index fell 5.8 percent; and Singapore's benchmark tumbled 5.5 percent. 2008 Oct 9 (Thursday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell as low as 8,955.84 and ended the day down at 9,006 points. 2008 week of Oct 6-10: The Dow Jones Industrial Average index suffered the worst week in a hundred years, falling 18 percent. 2008 Oct 13 (Monday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average index jumped 400 points by 8:30 a.m., up 976 points by end of day (biggest one-day point gain ever), and the S&P index rose 104 points (also the biggest one-day point gain ever). 2008 Oct 23 (Thursday): Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan warned of a 'credit tsunami'. 2008 Nov 4: Democrats won the national elections for President and for many Senate & Congress seats; Barack Obama won the election for the U.S. Presidency with 52% of the popular vote, and with 365 electoral votes to John McCain's 173 electoral votes. 2008 Nov 10: The Federal Reserve & Treasury paid out another $27.5 billion for A.I.G. losses, making a total of $150B. 2008 Nov 17 (Monday): Japan declared a recession, the first since 2001 – and most people there blame the U.S. 2008 Nov 19: U.S. Senate hearing on the automotive crisis, with unsworn testimony by the heads of Chrysler, Ford & General Motors. 2008 Dec 9: Negotiators revealed the terms of an emerging deal between the Bush White House and Congress under which a short-term $15 billion bailout for the Big Three would be overseen by a federal trustee (or 'car czar'). 2008 Dec 19: President Bush announced approval of the automaker bailout plan, which would give loans of $17.4 billion to G.M. and Chrysler, 2008 Dec 31: At year-end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index had fallen nearly 34 percent, the worst since 1931; the S&P index was down 38.5%, the worst since 1937. National Debt in 2009: 25 TRILLION DOLLARS on the day that Dubya left office — an increase of 436 percent in eight years, giving George W. Bush the inenviable record as the person who ran up the most debt in the history of Mankind !! Barack Obama  Fixing  The  Disaster 2009 Jan 20: Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. 2009 Feb 13: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed in Congress; no Republicans in the House and only three Republican Senators voted in favor. The bill included $288 billion in tax cuts, $357 billion for federal spending programs, and $144 billion to state & local fiscal relief. 2009 Feb 17: The 'recovery package' bill was signed into law by President Obama, adding $787 billion and 3.5 million jobs to the floundering American economy. 2009 March 9: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index bottomed at 6,547, a 12-year low. 2009 April 30: Chrysler Motors and 24 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after talks with lenders broke down. 2009 June 1: General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 2009 June 10: Chrysler Motors and affiliates emerged from bankruptcy (backed by $6.6B in financing from the federal government), and immediately sold several divisions to Fiat of Italy. 2009 July 10: General Motors ended bankruptcy proceedings. 2009 Nov: "The stock market is down 26% since 2000. (Inflation-adjusted, it's even worse.)" — Time Magazine 2009 Nov: "There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings." — Paul Krugman, in The New York Times 2010 May 6 (Thursday): The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index had a record freefall event: in half an hour the stock market dropped more than it has ever dropped, all at once, 998.50 points, managing to end the day down only 347 (-3.19%). 2010 May 7 (Friday): The unstable Dow Jones Industrial Average Index plunged another 140 pts, and closed down 672 points (-5.71%) for the week.

Books

Recent Additions

	"On The Brink: Inside The Race To Stop The Collapse of   The Global Financial System" [2010] by Henry M. Paulson Business Plus 9x6 pb [2/2010] imported/new-used Business Plus 9x6¼ hardcover [2/2010] for $15.94
	"After The Fall: Saving Capitalism From Wall Street and Washington" [2009] by Nicole Gelinas Encounter Books 9½x6½ hardcover [11/2009] for $16.29
	"The Looting of America: How The Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions & Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It" [2009] by Les Leopold Chelsea Green Publng 8¼x5¼ pb [6/2009] for $10.17
	"The Road From Ruin: How To Revive Capitalism and Put America Back On Top" [2010] by Matthew Bishop & Michael Green Crown Business 9¼x6½ hardcover [1/2010] for $17.82
	"13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover & The Next Financial Meltdown" [2010] by Simon Johnson & James Kwak Pantheon hardcover [3/2010] for $16.17
	"The End of Wall Street" [2010]   by Roger Lowenstein Penguin Press 9½x6½ hardcover [4/2010] for $9.99
	"Slapped By The Invisible Hand: The Panic of 2007" [2010]   by Gary B. Gorton Oxford Univ Press 9¼x6½ hardcover [3/2010] for $31.95
	"Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road From Glory To Disaster" [2010] by Paul Ingrassia Random House 9x6½ hardcover [1/2010] for $17.16
	"The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs" [2008, rev 2009] by Charles D. Ellis Penguin Revised Edition 8½x5½ pb [9/2009] for $13.60 Penguin Press 9&FRAC12X6 hardcover [10/2008] for $25.05
	"It Takes A Pillage: Behind The Bailouts, Bonuses & Backroom Deals From Washington To Wall Street" [2009] by Nomi Prins Wiley & Sons 9¼x6½ hardcover [9/2009] for $17.13 author website
	"How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities" [2009] by John Cassidy Picador pb [DUE 11/2010] for $16.00 FS&G 9x6 hardcover [11/2009] for $18.48

"House of Cards" re Bear Stearns by Wm D. Cohan
http://www.amazon.com/House-Cards-Hubris-Wretched-Excess/dp/0385528264/

"Street Fighters" re Bear Stearns by Kat Kelly
http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighters-Hours-Stearns-Toughest/dp/1591842735/

"The Big Con" by Jonathan Chait
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Con-Washington-Hoodwinked-Economics/dp/0618685405/
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Con-Crackpot-Economics-Fleecing/dp/0547085702/

"The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century" []
Edited by Michel Chossudovsky & Andrew Gavin Marshall
Global Research ISBN 978-0-9737147-3-9

http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Trap-Fall-Bear-Stearns-Panic/dp/1883283639/
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Blood-Mutiny-Morgan-Stanley/dp/B002V1GZW8/
http://www.amazon.com/Brink-Inside-Collapse-Global-Financial/dp/0446561932/
http://www.amazon.com/Den-Thieves-James-B-Stewart/dp/067179227X/
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Casino-Friendship-Betrayal-Brothers/dp/0470540869/
http://www.amazon.com/Dumb-Money-Greatest-Financial-Bankrupted/dp/B002QGSXH8/
http://www.amazon.com/False-Profits-Recovering-Bubble-Economy/dp/0982417128/
http://www.amazon.com/Fiasco-Inside-Story-Street-Trader/dp/0140278796/
http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Corrupted-Unleashed-Catastrophe/dp/141659857X/
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Man-Standing-Ascent-JPMorgan/dp/1416599533/
http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Poker-Rising-Through-Wreckage/dp/0140143459/
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Lehman-Brothers-Insiders-Meltdown/dp/188328371X/
http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Crash-Great-Bubble-Undoing/dp/B000BNPG8M/ + /0143034677/
http://www.amazon.com/Panic-Story-Modern-Financial-Insanity/dp/0393337987/
http://www.amazon.com/Predators-Ball-Inside-Burnham-Raiders/dp/0140120904/
http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Thieves-Inside-Culture-Corporate/dp/1883283698/
http://www.amazon.com/Uncontrolled-Risk-Brothers-Systemic-Financial/dp/0071638296/
http://www.amazon.com/When-Genius-Failed-Long-Term-Management/dp/0375758259/

	"Too Big To Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts" [2004] by Gary H. Stern {former Fed-MN CEO} & Ron J. Feldman {current Fed-MN sr VP}, Foreword by former Fed Chair Paul A. Volcker Brookings Institution Press 9x6 pb [3/2009] for $19.62 Brookings Institution Press 9¼x6 hardcover [3/2004] out of print/used
	"The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers & The Great Credit Crash" [2008] by Charles R. Morris PublicAffairs 8x5½ pb [2/2009] for $11.16 PublicAffairs 8¼x5½ hardcover [3/2008] for $15.22
	"The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What To Do About It" [2008] by Robert J. Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University Princeton Univ Press hardcover [8/2008] for $11.53
	"Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity & The Sub Crime Scandal" [2008] by Danny Schechter Cosimo Books 8½x5½ pb [9/2008] for $13.45 Cosimo Books 8¾x5¾ hardcover [9/2008] for $29.95 official bookpage
	"Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover" [2009] by Katrina vanden Heuvel and the editors of "The Nation" Magazine, Introduction by William Greider Nation Books 7x5 pb [1/2009] for $12.44
	"Plunder and Blunder: The Rise & Fall of The Bubble Economy" [2009] by Dean Baker The author is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC; the book "documents the fundamental policy changes since 1980 that destabilized the economy and eroded the broad prosperity of the post-war period" Polipoint Press 8½x5½ pb [1/2009] for $10.85
	"Meltdown: A Free-Market Look At Why The Stock Market Collapsed, The Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse" [2/2009] by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Foreword by Rep. Ron Paul Historian Woods, of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama, writes with typical Libertarian wrong-headedness – de-regulate everything and things will get better, which is how we got into this mess in the first place!.
	"The Crash of 2008 and What It Means: The New Paradigm For Financial Markets" [2009] by George Soros PublicAffairs 7½x5 pb [3/2009] for $10.17
	"And Then The Roof Caved In: How Wall Street's Greed & Stupidity Brought Capitalism To Its Knees" [2009] by David Faber {market news analyst for CNBC} Wiley & Sons 9¼x6 hardcover [6/2009] for $17.79
	"A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of The Collapse of Lehman Brothers" [2009] by Lawrence G. McDonald, with Patrick Robinson Three Rivers Press pb [DUE June 2010] for $10.88   Crown Business 9¼x6¼ hardcover [7/2009] for $17.82
	"In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War On The Great Panic" [2009] by David Wessel Author Wessel – Wall Street Journal economics editor – gives Bernanke credit for preventing The Great Panic from morphing into something even worse. Crown Business hardcover [8/2009] for $17.81 Federal Reserve System section at Maison d'Κtre Philosophy Bookstore
	"This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly" [2009] by Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff "This is quite simply the best empirical investigation of financial crises ever published. Covering hundreds of years and bringing together a dizzying array of data, Reinhart and Rogoff have made a truly heroic contribution to financial history. This single marvelous volume is worth a thousand mathematical models." — Niall Ferguson Princeton Univ Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [9/2009] for $19.25
	"Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought To Save The Financial System – and Themselves" [2009] by Andrew Ross Sorkin, columnist for The New York Times Viking 9¼x6½ hardcover [10/2009] for $13.00
	"The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed & Government Mismanagement Destroyed The Global Financial System" [2009] by Charles Gasparino HarperBusiness 9x6¼ hardcover [11/2009] for $15.39
	"Too Big To Save? How To Fix The U.S. Financial System" [2009] by Robert Pozen, Foreword by Robert J. Shiller Wiley & Sons 9x6¼ hardcover [11/2009] for $19.28
	"Freefall: America, Free Markets & The Sinking of The World Economy" [2010] by Joseph E. Stiglitz W.W. Norton 9¼x6¼ hardcover [1/2010] for $16.34
	"The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" [2010] by Michael Lewis A character-rich and darkly humorous account of how the combination of ridiculously easy money, investment broker and shareholder greed, non-regulation, and toxic derivatives caused the free fall of the American economy. Movie rights purchased before publication by Paramount Pictures for Brad Pitt's Plan B company. W.W. Norton 8¼x5½ pb [DUE Feb 2011] for $10.76   W.W. Norton 9¼x6 hardcover [3/2010] for $15.34
	"Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten   The World Economy" [2010] by Raghuram G. Rajan Princeton Univ Press 9¼x6 hardcover [5/2010] for $17.79

Motion Pictures & News TV DVDs

"Wall Street" [Fox Dec 1987] Bud Fox, a young and very ambitious stock trader, courts the powerful stock speculator Gordon Gekko, who takes the boy under his wing. Bud becomes immersed in the fast life, the big time, but soon is asked to take actions that even he finds offensive. Co-written & directed by Oliver Stone; co-written by Stanley Weiser; starring Michael Douglas {won Oscar & David di Donatello Best Actor awards}, Charlie Sheen, Hal Holbrook, Martin Sheen, Terence Stamp, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, James Spader, Saul Rubinek & Sylvia Miles; Fox widescreen color Blu-ray [2/2008] for $13.99 Fox widescreen color DVD [9/2007] 2 disks for $9.49 Fox color VHS [1/96] out of prodn/many, many used Varese Sarabande soundtrack CD [10/93] out of prodn/used {with "Talk Radio" [1988]} 11"x17" poster available for $14.99 at AllPosters.com full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"American Ca$ino" documentary feature [indep Aug 2009] This film finally explains how and why the global financial system crumbled from the subprime loan market 'bubble' and over $12 trillion of our money vanished into the pockets of Wall Street titans. Co-written & directed by Leslie Cockburn; co-written by Andrew Cockburn; faeturing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Mayor of Baltimore Sheila Dixon, former Senator Phil Gramm, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson & Congressman Henry Waxman DVD/Blu-ray not available at Amazon • full credits at IMDb • official movie site Working Minds Philosophy Essay #18 "The Stock Market Casino" [Dec 2001]

"Two Trillion With A T: How You Bought Wall Street" Special Report [Fox News 14 March 2009] Hosted by Bret Baier; exclusive interviews include George W. Bush, his Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, House Banking Chairman Barney Frank, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, among others Fox News 42-minute color DVD [6/2009] for $19.95 not listed on IMDb • official movie site

"Capitalism: A Love Story" [Dog Eat Dog/Weinstein Oct 2009] Back in 2008, Michael Moore described his next film as being about 'the wonders of capitalism'. However, fate provided him with the 'G.O.P. Meltdown', the still-rolling collapse of the U.S. and worldwide economy. The American Dream is looking like a nightmare for more and more ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down, as families pay the price each day with their jobs, their homes and their savings – the disastrous impact of unregulated corporate dominance and scared politicians seeking re-election over mystified & angry citizens across America. Co-produced, written & directed by & starring Michael Moore; already won 2 awards at the Venice Film Festival Starz / Anchor Bay widescreen color Blu-ray [3/2010] for $24.99   Starz / Anchor Bay widescreen color DVD [3/2010] for $17.99   full credits from IMDb • official movie site

"Plunder: The Crime of Our Time"   [Globalvision indep May 2010 release] After his controversial docufilm "In Debt We Trust" [2006] and the book "Plunder" [2008] {above}, director Schechter interviewed bankers of Wall Street and released this film in May 2010, with the companion book "The Crime of Our Time" due in September 2010. produced by Ray Nowosielski, directed by Danny Schechter DVD available on producer website not listed on IMDb • official movie site

"The Crime of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big To Jail" [2010]   by Danny Schechter Disinformation Company 8½x5½ pb [9/2010] for $13.57

"Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps"   [scheduled for Sept 2010 Fox release] A young Wall Street trader teams up with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming financial doom, and to bring to justice the person responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor. Co-produced by Edward R. Pressman, Oliver Stone & Michael Douglas; directed by Oliver Stone; starring Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Charlie Sheen, Josh Brolin & Frank Langella, cameo by Nouriel Roubini DVD/Blu-ray not yet available; full credits at IMDb

"Inside Job" [scheduled for Oct 2010 Sony Pictures Classics release]   A comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, thru exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists & academics. Co-produced, wriiten & directed by Charles Ferguson; narrated by Matt Damon; featuring Congressman Barney Frank, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, George Soros, Eliot Spitzer, Paul Volcker, many others DVD/Blu-ray not yet available • credits at IMDb • official movie site

Links

'Stop Bush' Page at Working Minds website

2008 Elections Page at Working Minds website

2010 Elections Page at Working Minds website

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