Boom Bust Boom

Released Mar 11, 2016

1 hr. 14 min.

Documentary

List

86%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

72%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Filmmaker Terry Jones utilizes animation, puppetry and music to examine the worldwide economic collapse of 2008.

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frankie h

An Engaging and Amusing Documentary of Financial Crises in Capitalism.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I think complete stories are better than ones that start in the middle. This one starts with greedy bankers preying on borrowers who couldn't afford mortgages. It's strange that no one questions why greedy banks were eager to loan money to people who were unlikely to pay it back. The minute someone does the slightest bit of research they'll find that these greedy banks were being accused of discriminating against minorities and people with bad credit. The New York Times published a headline about a black man with a 700 credit score being 60% less likely to get a loan than a white man. The New York Times made sure to disclose the color of the borrowers skin, but failed to mention the debt to income levels, down payments, and annual income of those borrowers. In 1998, Bill Clinton threatens to fine banks for not loaning to minorities and sub prime borrowers because owning a home is the American dream. The greedy banks knew that loaning money to people who can't afford the loans is not only stupid for the banks, but also the borrowers. However, the all powerful government got what it wanted; increased loans to voters with low credit scores. The greedy banks, who also donate vast sums to both parties, complained about the risks of loaning money to high risk borrowers and were told the Government Sponsored Entities, Fannie and Freddie, would buy those high risks/high interest loans. This policy moved the risk from bank balance sheets to the government. This made a small bit of sense at the time since banks had to be threatened with fines from the government to make these loans in the first place. However, this policy is also what opened the flood gates. Banks could now seek out high risk borrowers they originally "discriminated" against, provide loans to them and then sell those loans to Fannie and Freddie. Given that any risky loan the banks came up with was backed by the full faith and credit of these government sponsored entities, banks were now eager to take on these risks. By 2003, a group of independent auditors finds an unprecedented amount of high risk mortgages on Fannie and Freddie's books and warns then House Financial Services committee chairman, Barney Frank, of the tremendous risk the government had taken on. He replies that he is, "comfortable rolling the dice on subsidizing the mortgage market." This is the man whose name would be on the bill put in place to stop banks from "rolling the dice" after the crisis. In between 2003 and 2007, 250 Republicans and 200 Democrats sign legislation to deregulate derivatives. Funny enough, these derivatives would be partially blamed for the crisis along with a lack of lending between banks. No one talks about why these derivatives blew up. These derivatives were best that borrowers were going to pay their mortgages. Given that the mortgage market was over 400 years old at the time and had never blown up before, everyone thought mortgages were a safe bet. Mortgages were a safe bet until the government started subsidizing them. Once the crisis began, politicians pointed their fingers at the banks. Bankers are easy targets since they are some of the few people hated more than politicians. Barney "Roll the Dice" Frank came to the rescue with the Dodd Frank Bill and the entire world believed that greedy banks were to blame. Lawsuits started being filed against banks for preying on the same people they were accused previously accused of discriminating against. Yet, no one asks what caused discriminatory banks to become hunters of borrowers with bad credit. To the government's credit, they fulfilled their promise to guarantee the loans in the form of massive bailouts for banks. Bush provided the first TARP money, Obama provide the next installment, and the federal reserve lowered rates to make money cheap. This is a another great slight of hand. Bush gets the blame for bailing out Wall Street with TARP 1. Obama gets credit for stabilizing the financial system with TARP 2 and the stock markets performance fueled by the largest deficit in the country's history. Obama did admit he inherited the mess, but never really mentioned who left it to him. FDR created FHA and the Community Reinvestment Act, Jimmy Carter ran on "Everybody Deserves a Home", Clinton used the CRA to threaten banks into lending to high risk borrowers, and Barney Frank decided to keep "rolling the dice." But if you ignore all that, this movie is right about free market principles being responsible for the crisis. Free market principles are also responsible for creating so much wealth and freedom that ignorant actors and dishonest economists can produce Socialist propaganda in the wealthiest country in the world.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Nice breakdown of how we keep ending up in the boom -> bust -> boom cycle. Also, puppets. Also, for some reason, John Cusack?

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Keeps your attention. Explains financial concepts clearly and gives viewers a lot to think about.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Audience Member

âFree marketâ? ideology is skewered by cartoons, puppets, South Park and Monty Python. Highly recommended. The Neoclassical economic model is full of invalid assumptions and refuted by cognitive and evolutionary research on human beings. Hyman Minskyâ(TM)s financial instability hypothesis explains the cycles of boom and bust: stability leads to overconfidence then euphoric speculation occurs, overconfidence leads to deregulation and this leads to economic collapse. Private sector debt (not public sector) is correlated to economic traumas. We need a new economic system with significant regulations and based on the goal of stability not growth.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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Bill Jones

Director

Terry Jones

Director

Ben Timlett

Director

Dirk Bezemer

Self

Willem Buiter

Self

Philip Bulcock

Voice

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Ken Jaworowski

New York Times

A remarkably enjoyable, and sometimes very funny, documentary about a frightening topic.

Mar 10, 2016

Full Review

Noel Murray

AV Club

For those who aren't automatically turned off by the idea of an issue-doc that Schoolhouse Rock-ifies a serious, grown-up subject, Boom Bust Boom is a worthwhile way to spend an hour.

Rated: B

Mar 10, 2016

Full Review

John DeFore

Hollywood Reporter

The point of Boom Bust Boom, a friendly little pic hosted by Monty Python's Terry Jones, is that the world is little closer to acknowledging the causes of that trauma, and until we digest its lessons, something similar is bound to happen again.

Mar 8, 2016

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

The film weaves together animation, puppetry, expert insight from Nobel Prize winners and economists, and even songs to explain economics.

Rated: 3.5/4.0

Sep 4, 2020

Full Review

Eileen Jones

In These Times

Treating our historically specific economic system as an extension of human nature, one which can be diagnosed by studying incipient monkey-capitalists, isn't much of an analysis.

Apr 6, 2016

Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality & Practice

A spunky and creative critique of neoclassical economics.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 14, 2016

Full Review

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Synopsis

Filmmaker Terry Jones utilizes animation, puppetry and music to examine the worldwide economic collapse of 2008.

Director: Bill Jones, Terry Jones, Ben Timlett
Screenwriter: Terry Jones, Theo Kocken
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Production Co: Bill and Ben Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 11, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 15, 2016

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