If you have HBO, "Too Big to Fail" is seriously well worth watching.

[LiberalLoner]

It still gives me a sick feeling in my stomach to think how close we came to having our entire financial system collapse.

When I first heard of all this I didn't want them to bail out the banks and Wall Street. I didn't like that we were on the hook for the risks that Wall Street took. I still don't like it, but I guess they probably made the only decision they could.

If this situation isn't fixed, the next time this happens that will truly be the end of our nation.

[haikugal]

1. I'm watching and it's good

my problem at the time as well as then is that they didn't have to account for any of the money...none of it, to anybody. How the hell did that happen? I hope it's explained...was it considered unimportant? Why are these people still refusing regulation?

[LiberalLoner]

2. All I can figure is, they are still making money by taking risks and sticking us with the

bill afterwards. They don't want to be regulated because they don't care about the country as a whole. All they care about is the profits for their company and for themselves.

And because the banks and Wall Street seem to own Congress from what I can tell, I guess they always get their way even if it kills our country.

I don't see what power all of us "little people" have.

[SugarShack]

16. Inside Job is better, and tells the truth about Paulson

[LiberalLoner]

3. Wow. What an ending statement. n/t

[dsc]

4. it was a very well done film

and I bet that McCain is hopping mad over his portrayal.

[sixmile]

5. They made Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner look like heroes

I don't think they were.

[Atman]

8. I thought they made Paulson look like a near-fool who didn't know what he was doing.

.

[ohheckyeah]

6. We were so

friggin' close to complete financial meltdown that it's the thing nightmares are made of.

Good movie.

[LiberalLoner]

7. Yeah watching this movie I was more scared than I've ever been watching any

slasher movie Hollywood ever produced.

Just thinking about how we could have seen the whole thing collapse. No ability to withdraw money from banks, no way to buy goods, companies unable to get credit they need to continue production, etc.

I think it would have been so bad that it would be hard to even imagine. I thought the Great Depression sounded like hard times. This would have made the Great Depression seem like a happy time.

[LiberalLoner]

9. I wanted to say too, I was watching a business news channel when the stock market was

taking that historic dive. I remember watching in horror the whole time until the closing bell and I kept e-mailing my husband with the latest numbers.

I knew something really bad was going on and had no idea how much worse it was going to get and really didn't understand what on earth was causing the stock market to crash. I just kept thinking, "something is really wrong here."

[TTUBatfan2008]

17. We are probably still headed for it...

Hyperinflation is a threat if we continue piling up debt at our current pace.

[ohheckyeah]

21. Yes

and the republicans almost drove us over that cliff by refusing to pass the bill in the house.

[girl gone mad]

10. It wasn't the only choice.

If we're going to be real, TARP funds weren't accessed for many weeks after the bailout passed, and even then, they weren't used at all for the purpose for which they were supposedly so desperately needed.

We should have put the banks into receivership. All of my worst fears with respect to the bailouts have essentially come to pass. What was merely private banking sector risk has now become sovereign default risk, since the bad debts were simply shifted on to the public sector. This is causing severe economic and political instability around the globe. The banks never went back to lending, instead they pumped up their trading divisions, fueling huge new bubbles in commodities and equities. They've funneled money out as fast as possible via bonuses and compensation. Most of the TBTFs are no better capitalized now than they were then. Housing is still crashing, no end in sight. Unemployment remains high and there is no driver for growth on the horizon. Our political leaders are still ignorantly focused on debt and deficits. It's a recipe for ongoing disaster.

[LiberalLoner]

14. We did get the shaft, that's for sure. You know, I started wondering what was

going on right around maybe 2002 or so. I was watching housing prices in the DC area climb faster than I've ever seen housing prices climb in my life, and I was asking my husband, "who are the people who can afford to buy all these million dollar homes? Are there suddenly a lot more well-off folks than there used to be?" At the same time I noticed when I went grocery shopping, there were tables set up with young people trying to convince me to take on a second mortgage or refinance with their company. I had never seen a situation before where banks were out trying to sell mortgages like that. It used to be, you had to go to the bank and convince them you were a good credit risk, if you wanted to get a mortgage to help you buy a house. And banks wouldn't give people loans if they felt people couldn't pay them back.

So I saw these things going on and I just had a bad feeling about all of it.

I'll be honest, I still have a bad feeling about things. I feel as if I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don't think this is over, not by a long shot.

[LiberalLoner]

15. P.S. I'm reading "The Big Short" now and finding it very informative and

fascinating. And I love that it's written in a way that makes this information accessible to someone like me, who has no background in any of this and to be honest, a limited capacity for grasping some of the concepts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. They didn't put any restrictions on the money because the banksters might say no

That still just makes me crazy.

[applegrove]

12. I forgot it was on tonight. Dam!

[Bozita]

13. Heads Up: Charlie Rose has Sorkin and two of the actors on tonight.

[global1]

18. And Now The Merged Banks Are Bigger........

which seems like an accident waiting to happen - again - only more serious next time.

[LiberalLoner]

19. That's what worries me, too. n/t

[ohheckyeah]

22. Exactly.

I don't know what the options were but it seems there should have been more regulations put into place.

[Jakes Progress]

20. I didn't watch it after a story about it said it would humanize

the monsters that did this. The actors said they wanted to find the human motivations and sympathetic sides to the characters.

Too soon.