Friday, September 6, 2013

"Money for nothing - Inside the Federal Reserve" Canadian Premier @ Vancouver International Film Festival Sept. 29, Oct. 5, & Oct. 8



Those who have followed this blog know the emphasis we have placed on understanding monetary policy as an important component in knowing our housing bubble.

And an important component of understanding monetary policy is understanding the US Federal Reserve.

On November 15 the movie, "Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve" had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.

Money for Nothing is narrated by Liev Schreiber. It is an independent, nonpartisan, feature-length documentary film.

The cast includes prominent Fed watcher James Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer. Also appearing in the film are former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker; investor Jeremy Grantham; former Vice Chairman of the Fed Alan Blinder; Peter Fisher, former Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance; Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser; Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker; Vice Chair of the Fed Board of Governors Janet Yellen; and many more.

Money For Nothing covers 100 years of Fed history and, in many cases, is quite critical of Fed policies. The film asks the question: Can the Fed learn from its past?

The movie pays homage to Volcker and lays out thoughtful and respectful criticism of former Chairmen Arthur Burns and Alan Greenspan and current Chairman Ben Bernanke, among others.

The movie's director, Jim Bruce, says the goal of the film is to create informed debate that exposes the impact of Fed policy on the U.S. economy and on society (from the Greenspan Put to the Bernanke Put). The film questions the rationale behind today's Fed actions and calls for better policies in the future.

Starting with the Panic of 1907 and ending with the risks on the horizon of today's quantitative-easing quagmire, Money for Nothing dramatically and entertainingly reveals the Fed's ongoing reluctance to shed old ideas. The movie is filled with wonderful narrative and fascinating images that capture the world of finance throughout the Twentieth Century.

On September 29th, October 5th and October 8th, the film will be making it's Canadian Premier with three showings at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Click on the highlighted link over the dates to go to the VIFF website for film details and ticket buying info.

For info on showings in other cities see http://www.moneyfornothingthemovie.org

It should be very interesting.

If you can't view it, the link to the video above is: http://vimeo.com/50095912.

You can also see it on Youtube at: http://youtu.be/cMxGvdgzfHw.

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5 comments:

  1. Post a link when it's on YouTube.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The world is transitioning into a quite different environment. Despite desperate measure after desperate measure, a most over-extended global Bubble is convulsing erratically. The economic pie is stagnating - and on its way to contracting. This dynamic ensures an increasingly powerful pull of diverging interests, disagreement, fragmentation and confrontation.

    Difficult Decisions Ahead

    http://www.prudentbear.com/2013/09/difficult-decisions-ahead.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Slightly OT but - on my way to work this morning went by the condos under construction on Main St. by Terminal. In the corner parking lot is a sales center that was built last week. Today it had bright orange tarps all over it. Wanted so bad to take a picture, but A- I was driving and B- couldn't stop laughing to take something in focus. Anyone else see it? It would be visible from the Skytrain looking south at Main St. Station.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The sad thing for Canadians is that Harper/Flaherty/Carney implemented most of the same policies as Bush/Greenspan/Bernanke.

    Just like in the US, we've kept rates too low for too long, relied on household debt to fuel the economy and created a housing bubble.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with vancouverflippersintrouble above "rates too low for too long ... (relied on) debt to fuel the economy"

    Bubbles are serial as money flows in and out of speculative momentum in various sectors. As I was updating my chartbook with the August real estate and interest rate sensitive data, I noticed there might be a correlation with the other great inflation measure ... OIL

    Notice the oil peaks: http://www.chpc.biz/tsx_chart.html

    Notice the post oil peak real estate sell off: http://www.chpc.biz/vancouver_chart.html

    Here is what happened to SFD housing prices after oil spiked:

    2008 Vancouver -16% in 8 mos
    2008 Calgary -14% in 8 mos
    2008 Toronto -14% in 9 mos
    2008 TSX RE Index -51% in 10 mos
    2011 Vancouver -2% in 6 mos
    2011 Calgary -10% in 8 mos
    2011 Toronto -7% in 3 mos
    2011 TSX RE Index -6% in 4 mos

    2013 Oil: Time to Sell?

    ReplyDelete