I recently saw the movies Margin Call and Inside Job, both about the financial crisis of 2008, its causes and impacts. If you're up for some mental gymnastics, these are an amazing pair.
Watch Inside Job first - it's a documentary that covers an amazing amount of ground in two hours. You'll be educated on different kinds of financial instruments, government agencies and securities trading firms, deregulation arguments, and interviews with everyone who ever had anything to gain from a financial crisis. And it's
interesting. One of those documentaries where you're asking yourself, "How did I not know about this?!"
Margin Call is a fictionalization of one important night during the kickoff of the financial crisis, as told by some employees of a Lehman Brothers - type company. Jim found it fascinating - it drove me crazy because I didn't understand the background, which is why I watched Inside Job next. But he's right, the dialog is sharp, the acting is great. And man, Simon Baker just couldn't be any sexier. Just sayin.
