By, Ashley Crimaldi
Last week, I had the opportunity to see an amazing film called American Casino. The movie details the financial crisis of 2008, subprime lending, and its impact on the housing market. Director Leslie Cockburn investigates the relationship between Wall street and Main Street and in particular, how minority communities were targeted for subprime lending, causing many to lose their homes. The film illustrates the aftermath of the crisis on communities such as Baltimore, where foreclosed properties become the norm. Former inhabitants became homeless, causing many to “squat” in boarded up buildings resulting in serious health and safety risks for the community.
The film does an excellent job not only explaining the effects of subprime lending on the American economy, but humanizes the issue so every viewer can relate. If you work in the banking industry, this film could be particularly eye opening as it shows how the every day decisions bankers make really impact the American people. As someone who doesn’t know much about Wall Street, I found the film incredibly moving and informative. The film is currently only playing in limited theaters nationwide. Check out their website to see if the film is playing in a city near you.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hopefully the film isn’t some propaganda piece that neglected to inform how the government’s interference led to the subprime mess that contributed to the overall economic downfall. Because if it didn’t mention Jimmy Carter’s “Community Reinvestment Act” that FORCED banks to give people loans who couldn’t pay the money back because he decided that every American has to own a house, even if they couldn’t afford to buy one (and if the banks refused to lend these financially-troubled people a loan, then the banks would face major penalities from the gov’t.), then they failed to give an accurate historical account. If they tried to say that the “evil banking industry” went after poor & uneducated people (and that includes American citizens AND illegal aliens), then do some research for yourself and study gov’t history (be sure to check out Bill Clinton & Barney Frank when it comes to housing bills, regulations, etc.) and you’ll come to realize the truth about how corrupt and out-of-control the U.S. Gov’t has become.
Anything so that your Bankster masters never have to take any blame, eh, Sam?
Go on living in your little bubble, but the movie does mention red-lining, in the form of “reverse red-lining.” Deliberately targeting bad loans with ridiculous terms to “those people.” Hey, as the folks in the Wells Fargo loan office have been documented to say, they are just Mud People, right?
Still go ahead and blame an anti-discrimination low from 1977 which had nothing to do with _borrowers_ but with _neighborhoods_ if it makes you feel better. (Ironic that you mention Bankster tools like Clinton and Frank, who indeed share a huge part of the blame, but of course in the dittohead trance that they are some kind of socialists rather than stooges of Big Finance. Of course, you don’t mention Phil Gramm, the head stooge. However, since your understanding of economics is “Whatever Rush Limbaugh tells me,” that’s not surprising. )
Not bad, but that not all what you need to know about