Too Big to Fail

"I really don't understand why there needs to be so much tension about this. The country is facing the worst economy since the Great Depression. If the financial system collapses, it will take every one of you down."
--Ben Bernanke (Too Big to Fail)

Courtesy of my brother, finally saw Too Big to Fail last nite. Pleasant surprise. One amusing thing was how close the actors came to resembling their real life characters Paulson, Bernanke, Mack, Pelosi, et al.

More to the point were the memories it brought back about the Fall of 2008.  On these pages, I tried to document the events as they unfolded as I saw them. But things were happening so fast that it was difficult to be comprehensive. Moreover, it is hard to preserve the feeling of a market meltdown driven by deleveraging.

This movie does a good job at capturing both the events and the feel. Although I am sure there was some poetic license in some scenes and dialogue, I found the general progression to be accurate and not subject to a great deal of bias or messaging. More descriptive than prescriptive.

The overwhelming feeling I had was the futility of central planning. There is a scene where Paulson (played by John Heard), is getting phone call after phone call from executives and bureaucrats with breaking news of more declines and failures, and demands to make decisions almost instantaneously. No human can do that without making major mistakes.

The other sense (not new) is that these actions fixed nothing. We've were at the edge of the abyss and we will likely return. The folly of trying to solve a debt and spending problem with more debt and spending, and the moral hazard created when propping up poor financial decisions means that a sequel to this film is likely.

In fact, the European version is already in motion.