The Flaw

In the vein of documentaries such as the Oscar-winning Inside Job and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, filmmaker David Sington's The Flaw examines financial follies and greed during the recent general economic meltdown. One almost feels sorry for withered former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan as he's berated here by Henry Waxman in Congress for the collapse of the markets, leading the Fed guru to admit that the ideology of laissez-faire capitalism may have a "flaw." Prominent economists and academics argue that the popular conception of the 1950s as a golden age of prosperity is misleading—that it, in fact, led to an aberrant and toxic financial system in which banks amass huge wealth due to consumer credit-purchasing and rising (interest-earning) debts, while jobs and wages dwindle. Emboldened by the Reagan-Thatcherite removal of regulations (and the defeat of Soviet communism), financial markets rode a series of "bubbles," the biggest being the "booming" real-estate/mortgage market that started in 2000, which Yale's Robert Shiller frighteningly demonstrates was as false as a $3 bill. The fallout from the shattered housing market affected everyone (even a New York Times economic reporter here faces ruin). Of course, the money didn't simply altogether evaporate, but rather migrated to the super-rich, none of whom are interviewed directly to defend the status quo. Combining pithy sound bites with campy clips from vintage classroom-instructional films and cartoons, The Flaw serves up a damning indictment that meshes with the "Occupy" anti-Wall Street outlook. DVD extras include a Q&A with the filmmaker. Highly recommended. [Note: this is also available with public performance rights for $295 from Bullfrog Films, www.bullfrogfilms.com.] Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)