Now you may think you know enough about the recent financial crisis. You maybe have read 1000s of articles in journals, newspapers and magazines and thought it was enough, as you finally got the multifaceted story in full. That is what I thought before I went to see the documentary Inside Job.

I am so glad I went to see it. The rage inside of me at the end of the movie was resonating with the collective rage in the hall. People could not believe such things were allowed to happen and no one was doing anything to prevent them from happening in the future, especially in the US.

While the story is very familiar to us overall, the movie presents  video evidence of the crimes of certain high-file individuals and companies. I just read that the movie has won multiple awards, including an Oscar, 7 other awards and 15 nominations. I highly recommend it!

I found out from the movie that something I never thought would be legal is commonplace, i.e. that university professors of economics are allowed to not only be on the boards of financial institutions, but also to accept private sponsorship for carrying out research (which eventually becomes highly influential, as it is used by monetary authorities, who may or may not be aware of the extra incentives that the researcher had to conclude one way or the other). I cannot even find the words to express how wrong and dangerous this freedom can be in the wrong hands. This movie made me realise how naïve I had always been. Watch it if you haven’t.

p.s. The whole thing is not dissimilar to privately carried out research in the pharmaceutical industry (if you don’t know what I am talking about, read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma and Bad Science).