Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
OtisLovesUs
I found it pretty telling that all the people involved in this project could so easily—and condescendingly—criticize everyone involved (directly or indirectly) in various boom-bust cycles throughout history, but not one could provide a single alternate solution. Sure, some alluded to gauzy notions of a better way forward, but none were brave enough to provide even a single detail of their master plan.Another annoyance was the direct denunciation of capitalism and free markets, apparently because human nature doesn't produce perfect rationality 100% of the time. Well guess what, folks? You're stuck with us. No matter the system, as much as you want, you cannot remove humans from the equation.Yes, I could tell that many of the experts being interviewed wanted to propose some sort of utopian economic vision where all individual decision-making would be revoked by the state and replaced by the technocrats in charge (i.e. them), but none had the guts to say it.So what was the point of the film? It would've been one thing had Terry Jones, et al, simply wanted to convey how wacky boom-bust cycles can be in an informative and entertaining way. Or they could have stated that preventing financial crises was really hard, but thankfully "we have the solution." But all they did was repeatedly allude to a solution that was never offered. And that's because they don't actually have a solution. They simply wanted to demonize capitalism and the very concept of markets (imperfect, but undeniably superior to any other options). But that argument seemed to be based solely on the fact that these pesky, imperfect humans are involved. Which is just… weird.When the next bubble bursts it won't be because capitalism is evil. Enough people will have gotten greedy and made poor decisions (as they do), that the market will reset, and ultimately revalue the assets that have become overvalued. That's a market. And any self-professed expert with a PhD who claims he or she could have otherwise priced and maintained all assets perfectly from the start if only we had given them enough power is just a megalomaniac, and a fool.
Emma Fowler
I don't know anything about economics but I found this program very interesting and definitely entertaining! At times if I stopped paying attention I got slightly lost, but it explained things in multiple ways to make it easier to understand. The funny clips from movies and cartoons were great and well-placed to highlight what was being talked about.
tommy-190
This was a pretty good retelling of the financial crisis and told it in an interesting way, which is sure to please regular folks who aren't all that into these matters.The illustrations were good, overall very nice production value.Bubbles are mentioned - by a dedicated song even (!). However, it is glaringly obvious that no views on the current bubble(s) we're in were allowed to be included in the final cut of the film.It would have been a lot better if they had gone into more detail on how the current state of the economy is far worse than the last financial crisis and what people can do to protect themselves.
Paul Savoie
It was an enjoyable hour but by no means was it groundbreaking. For someone who is not intimately acquainted with economics Boom Bust Boom could be an enjoyable lighthearted crash course in the 2008 recession and a few other basic economic theories/concepts. For economists and anyone studying economics, such as myself, the film is lacking any kind of in depth discussion of the finer details relating to the 2008 recession and does not really tell you anything that you do not already know about the recession and the field of economics. It relies almost entirely on quotes and discussion by some notable, and some not notable, economists and academics. I can only recall a few actual data points being used, such as the size of the government bailouts paid to failing banks. So, Boom Bust Boom should not be taken as a serious economic analysis, it gives you the quick and dirty outline of the 2008 recession and the crisis tendency of capitalism but does not go much further.
