Capitalism: a love story

Went to see the new Michael Moore film, 'Capitalism: a love story' and while Michael often forgets to cross this "teas" and dot his "eyes" when he is researching, he really does hit the nail on the head. The manner of his exposé on his particularly relevant, particularly pertinent and, jesus, aren't they making fools of all of us?

There was the majority in the House of Representatives, trying to retain their dignity, trying to obey the constitution and there they were rejecting the first bailout package: "The vote against the measure was 228 to 205, with 133 Republicans turning against President Bush to join 95 Democrats in opposition. The bill was backed by 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans." So, off Mr Paulson went, gathering his troops from Wall Street, Washington and the media, we had a scare campaign and a bit of behind the scenes pressure for a few days, and then, on October 3rd 2008, only days after it had been originally rejected, President Bush was presented with a bill approved by Congress that would provide $700 billion to the failing financial industry.

So, who got the money? Did "Joe Soap" get it to help him with his mortgage, was it given to failing companies in the manufacturing sector to tide them over and save jobs, was it used to create new jobs? No, no, no, "Silly"; the banks got the money and 'Goldman Sachs', the 'Bank of America' 'Citigroup', 'Wells Fargo', 'JP Morgan Chase', 'Morgan Stanley' they got silly money, or to be more appropriate they got your money "Silly". Moreover, they are not accountable to anyone regarding how they spend the it. Still, if there is a wee bit left over maybe, just maybe, we will get them "investing" in jobs, houses, hospitals etc. and at this point the band begins to play "believe it if you like", after all, altruistic these people are not, indeed, despite his neglecting his "teas" and "eyes", Michael really does hit the nail on the head and that is what makes this a worthwhile film to watch. Still, Michael, "criminal" is not the term I would use to describe the in-crowd in Wall Street; thieving bastards they are, all of them!

Like most of Mr Moore's films, a black sense of humour is required when watching it and like most of them it is not for those who prefer serious academic research. Nevertheless, like all of Mr Moore's films it is a good exposé of a few home truths and it has a reoccuring thesis statement that even the most serous academics would find hard to challenge.