outside of inside

Watched "Inside Job" a  few days ago. Good movie as far as it goes, but there's another part of the story that probably wouldn't be as easy, or pleasant to film. BTW, the film got mentioned at state association meeting today--as a great movie--staring those evil bankers and wall street folks--real estate trade associations love to sling a little mud that direction--when they're not so close they could get some mud on themselves.

The movie focuses on the captains of the banking, rating and insurance industries who created and mutated mortgage backed financial derivatives into the CDOs that nearly no one understood (understanding isn't much better now). That creative streak and a dollop or two of naked greed is assumed by many to have brought the world economy to the brink of collapse. Whether that fate is behind us remains to be seen. The storied few had a lot company looking over the brink. A few years later, quarterly profits are way up for the key players who survived and prospered, but for much of the US life is still in a questionable condition. The creative opportunities posed by CDO's merely opened the door leading down a murky path illuminated by greed. A very diverse array of individuals, organizations and institutions from all corners of business and all strata of society tumbled through the open door into a Neverland of false promise, fleeting hope and delusional optimism.

The Inside Job gazes at the alluring, glitzy upper end of the food chain spangled with millions and billions and trillions of dollars, exotic automobiles, mega yachts, high priced hookers and mountain ranges of cocaine. That world seems far removed from the reality of most viewing the movie, but it's sure fun to look and feel a vicarious tingle or two. The actual meltdown included players from all walks of life--a rather prosaic lot, whose participation in the grand plan, for often trivial reward, sustained and nurtured it.

Yes, the financial ecosystem that produced those impressive figures and corporations and governmental officials (lots of overlap there) at the top of the food chain was dependent on primary producers and consumers low down in the hierarchy. It was an aberrant ecosystem perking along for quite a few years--evolving toward the ultimate catastrophe. Back in my university lifetime, I loved looking at the graphical representations of catastrophe theory and attempting to apply the principles to real world situations. This fits the classic cusp!

Way down the food chain, real people bought real houses with the mortgages that got packaged into the CDOs that fueled the whole big bubble. There were mortgage companies, real estate brokers and agents, escrow/title companies, insurance companies, construction firms, suppliers etc, etc. all along for the ride. Some very smart people and probably some not so smart KNEW that things were headed in a wrong direction. The money sure looked attractive though! Maybe things will hang together until we all grab another handful of green?

Unlike the huge salaries and bonuses that seduced the top of the food chain, the folks way down the food chain performed acts they knew were pretty sketchy for almost nothing. A few more commissions here and there, plenty of work at prevailing wages etc. That's all it took--they were all part of the magnificent pageant. Life was good--maybe not a lot better than before, but better enough so not many wanted to ask questions or take a long look in the mirror before going off to do the deeds.

The collateral damage is huge and few are talking about it--heck the simple, straight forward damage is terrifying enough. The most disturbing aspect is that a generation of young people will be altered psychologically by forced relocation and the ancillary nightmare of abandoned friends, separation from beloved pets, loss of familiar scenes and a new life where expectations that were most often realized before will now often be torn asunder. Will those young people ever understand about CDOs and greed and the top of the food chain exerting their diverse, but convergent, manifest destinies?

It's hard to put a price on that sort of decline in the quality of life for millions of people lasting over the next several generations---but we did. The Wall Street, Banking, Insuring, Rating and Governing folks DID put a price on it --- what it would take to make them whole--and we paid that price. The country, and the world will be paying installments on that amount for a long long time. The psychological fallout is unfathomable and can't be measured in dollars, all the easier to ignore!

Oh, anyone who doesn't think there's a next time coming is still living a dream that never started.