I just watched a new Frontline documentary that will be premiering next Tuesday night, and I have to say, it is the most harrowing hour of television I've ever seen. I am truly horrified right now, and I mean that in the most literal sense. I recommend you all watch it, but watch it with a drink. You'll need it.
I watched last night. Decent.
It was mostly just a recap of what we heard/read in the fall. Almost nothing new. Nothing about where the economy is going or what is next.
It takes about 4 months to produce an episode of Frontline, so by the nature of the production process, they can't produce an up-to-the-minute analysis of the current situation. Their aim is to give a step-by-step breakdown of a major event or phenomenon in historical and social context, which I believe they do better than any other documentary series on TV. Michael Kirk (the producer of Inside The Meltdown) has just begun working on a documentary on the vagaries of the American banking system, which should be ready around June or July. Frontline has pretty much committed to focusing solely on the economy for the forseeable future, just as they decided to focus on "the war on terror" after 9/11.
I agree with you that they do a great job of breakdown major events. This episode was another one of those great jobs.
I was talking about it with my friend who knows these things. A working economist.
He says that England, Spain and Austria are in worse shape than the US. They do not have enough money to bailout their banks. We are looking at 5-10 years of treading water or worse.
Gietner and Summers are more interested in saving banks than saving the tax payers. They have yet to step up and regulate CDSs or nationalize banks.
He told me something I didn't know. The Federal Reserve Board is appointed by and overseen by Congress, but they work for the banks. The banks are their clients. The Fed has no interest, or obligation, to serve taxpayers.
That, and we need to start actually producing things again. This whole service economy thing has been a sham from jump.
To be overly simple, it doesn't really matter what you're doing, as long as you have more money coming in than going out. If it worked that somehow we were servicing enough of the rest of the world to bring the country to that point of income it could work. But I just don't see how we're effectively going to serve people hamburgers and operate on them from across the ocean(s). And it looks like a few choice developing countries have call centers, support, processing, and IT wrapped up.
I always wonder what they do in Europe. But doesn't France have something like a 10% unemployment rate all the time? (don't quote me)
Comments
I agree with you that they do a great job of breakdown major events.
This episode was another one of those great jobs.
I was talking about it with my friend who knows these things. A working economist.
He says that England, Spain and Austria are in worse shape than the US.
They do not have enough money to bailout their banks.
We are looking at 5-10 years of treading water or worse.
Gietner and Summers are more interested in saving banks than saving the tax payers.
They have yet to step up and regulate CDSs or nationalize banks.
He told me something I didn't know.
The Federal Reserve Board is appointed by and overseen by Congress, but they work for the banks.
The banks are their clients.
The Fed has no interest, or obligation, to serve taxpayers.
This is all care of my econ friend.
To be overly simple, it doesn't really matter what you're doing, as long as you have more money coming in than going out. If it worked that somehow we were servicing enough of the rest of the world to bring the country to that point of income it could work. But I just don't see how we're effectively going to serve people hamburgers and operate on them from across the ocean(s). And it looks like a few choice developing countries have call centers, support, processing, and IT wrapped up.
I always wonder what they do in Europe. But doesn't France have something like a 10% unemployment rate all the time? (don't quote me)