Understanding Wall Street – Inside Job Reviewed

Against a backdrop of protesters taking on Wall Street in the United States, the JMSC screened the thought-provoking documentary Inside Job on October 7.

Inside Job was the 2010 Academy Award Best Documentary Feature winner.

It examined what happened during the global economic recession in 2008.

The screening was attended by many students, including those interested in finance and business journalism.

“It’s a very persuasive documentary,” said Isak Ladegaard, a third-year student who wants to pursue a career in finance journalism. “I would recommend it to all students interested in finance.”

Inside Job’s official website states that its goal to expose Wall Street’s “crimes” against society: “The global economic crisis cost tens of millions of people’s jobs, savings, and their homes. This is how it happened.”

Starting off with a gloomy review of Iceland’s economic meltdown, the documentary offered compelling arguments against what it calls “Wall Street’s perpetually growing greed and irresponsibility”.

The film carefully pieced together a chain of apparently risky and dishonest activities conducted by investment banks, rating agencies, home loan mortgage corporations and government officials. Even college academics were revealed to have received bonuses from financial institutions to lie in their papers.

Inside Job’s website quoted TIME magazine’s movie review saying that if “you are not enraged by the end of the movie, you weren’t paying attention.”

However, many students who attended the screening did not seem surprised by the movie’s bold accusations.

Temily Gopan, a third-year BJ at the JMSC, said that she was “not angry at all” because everybody is “self-interested”.

Last week, the Occupy Wall Street protests drew global attention.

Professor Ying Chan, the director of JMSC who also attended the documentary screening, mentioned in her recently published article in the Chinese international affairs magazine Yazhou Zhoukan that it took a long time for the American media to acknowledge the demonstrations.

Only last Saturday, the picture of arrested protesters on Wall Street make it to front pages of mainstream media, such as the New York Daily Post, according to Chan.

This documentary certainly covered the crisis in detail.