Wouldn't it be nice if, in a case of national economic disaster, we could put our finger on the people whose ignominious greed and incredibly selfish judgments caused it? And then lock them away so that they can never loot the economy again? It may be sometime after the collapse, but this documentary by Charles Ferguson, co-written by Chad Beck and Adam Bolt, attempts to cut through the complexity of the financial system and its artificial "products" in order to get the goods on the Wall Street billionaires with such a lust for money and the arrogance to go with it that they would bring havoc on the people whose hard-earned savings they savaged like it was an unending source of risk-free acquisition.

There's much written about the anger that has found expression in the "tea party" movement. The strong emotions you hear from the mouths of people who attend the rallies and find themselves speaking into a microphone are directed at ending social security and Medicare and blaming President Obama, his administration and the entirety of the U.S. Government for the causes of a monetary devastation few of us can wrap our minds around. This probing analysis, rather expertly narrated by Matt Damon ("The Informant," "The Bourne Identity"), is a must-see for all who share their views (if not their reasoning) because it may refocus their outrage on where it belongs.

The documentary takes us back in time to the origins of the financial blowout of 2008-09 with film and video clips to illustrate the schemes and schemers who saw a chance to make a killing when the regulations were removed by the previous administration that would have prevented the fraud, collusion and Ponzi Scheme manipulation that became standard procedure among the big banks and insurance institutions. The game of wealth acquisition never had it so good. It made the Enron debacle seem like a bad day at the bingo table.

The new derivative* that became the instrument of manipulation was the credit default swap. In this scheme, a financial Wall Street firm like Bear Stearns would, through their hedge funds, acquire mortgages and company debt that were, despite AAA ratings, basket cases of unreliability and growing illiquidity. Why? Because involved in the acquisition was an insurance policy from someone like AIG that guaranteed the investments. If the credit speculation proved profitable, fine. If it went sour, no problem. It was guaranteed. Therefore, no investment was too great since the profits were unending. Until the source dried up and the free dollars ran out.

The term, "too good to be true" didn't occur to these smart guys?

When the first signs of trouble appeared in 2007 that the hedge funds employed in this game began to look like they were in trouble, it didn't take long before fear and panic rolled over Wall Street like a tsunami. The greatest recession since the one in the thirties was on its way. Housing finance giants Freedie Mac and Fannie Mae were seized. From them alone the loss would reach near $400 Billion. Being underwater wasn't just a metaphor.

After the disappearance of some $20 Trillian dollars from the financial system, bailouts with huge sums of the people's money were issued to the biggest banks and insurance companies that were considered by the Bush administration to be too big to fail (no argument, probably true). Massive chunks of Treasury money were issued as loans from the treasury's coffers in order to forestall or avoid a total and decimating breakdown. Henry Paulson, Bush's Treasury Secretary, who hadn't any worries about the easy money in the loan industry before the devastation now spoke to the people about how urgent these loans were. And, then, he wrote the checks.

We all know there's no free lunch. So why did the guys in control, like Paulson, Fed Chairman Greenspan, a boatload of economists and Bush himself think there was?

What Ferguson tries to do is help us understand the mechanisms that allowed it to happen, the grand collusion between different but related interests which enabled the swindle; senators and lobbyists who were lining their own pockets; economics professors who were gathering fees they never had before by supporting the false claim of safety and wisdom; the rating companies who were capitalizing on their years of integrity by issuing far rosier ratings than the balance sheets justified.

He similarly makes mincemeat out of the agencies that are supposed to protect us from being duped. He virtually indicts Fed Chairman Greenspan for sticking stubbornly to trickle-down theories against all evidence to the contrary. Ferguson devotes much screen time to show us what the corporate elite spend their money on: real estate properties around the globe, boats, planes, limoes, jewelry, million dollar paintings, etc.--in a constant game of one-upmanship with their peers.

What is especially fruitful here is Ferguson's preparation for the lies coverups, reinterpretations and myths several of his subjects try to use in an attempt to create a fog of confusion around their complicity, deception, abuse, bad advice and corruption. His attack of truth made some of them (David McCormick, former Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury, deputy NSA advisor on international economic affairs; Frederic Mishkin, Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve, 2006-2008) squirm, or go silent. It's enough to make you want to send the governmental watchdogs and the sloppy rich on Wall Street to a cell near Bernie Madoff.

But Ferguson is an equal opportunity accuser. He points out that current president Barack Obama, who should have cleared the economic advisors who were blind to the processes of catastrophe out of government, has either appointed many of them to his cabinet or to advisory roles. Larry Summers and Timothy Geitner stand out. He extended Ben Bernanke's term as the Chairman of the Fed. Once you know how these people are implicated, it's hard to understand the rewards coming from a president who campaigned on change, except...

Except that it shows that the pool of people who know the system well enough to maybe give it a pill, if not a cure, is a severely limited one.

Which brings us to the inescapable realization that one might get from this presentation: that control of our economy and the distribution of wealth is, and for the foreseeable future will be, in New York and Washington. And, so, a note to the teapartyers: You don't get reform by concentrating your anger simplistically at the party in power. You're doomed to be dissatisfied whichever party rules. But you're likely to be less victimized with the one which realizes the vital importance of vigorous and effective regulation. That's the only control we may ever have over those who will game us every chance they get.

As for the emotions this subject inspires, part of mine is depression and hopelessness in the face of a system that makes 99% of us pawns of the privileged elite. Isn't the total lack of official investigation and justice an indication that these operators have risen above the restraints of justice? They sure think so. That's why their bonuses to themselves, with government loan money, were so generous. It's their right and their due. Isn't it?

If it proves anything it's this: You can't trust these guys! They see no one minding the store that is the U.S. Treasury and they will go for it with all fangs of avarice in hyper-sucking mode and to hell with those who get a little blood on their bibs.

The documentary acknowledges the fact that a few of the liars and cheats got hurt; and that most of them didn't go near the merest life-style inconvenience. Maybe the household helicopter had to go. But, in any case, it does a grand job of exploring the broad dynamics of a history-making event with a comprehensive ear for all the experts and players who would agree to be interviewed and to be heard. Those who wouldn't agree are clearly noted in screen titles at relevant times, and the reasons for the reticence are made manifestly clear by those who did appear.

Justice denied is justice lost, and the final message I took home is that we middlers will always be in a state of manipulation by the monied class and the corrupt lawmakers and lobbyists whose wallets they line with the fat of the land. You can take that to the bank.

                                      ~~  Jules Brenner