Investing Caffeine

Reality More Fascinating than Fiction

April 4, 2011 at 11:10 pm 3 comments

Make-believe is fun, but reality is often more fascinating than fiction. The same can be said for the books I read. Actually, all the books reviewed at Investing Caffeine have been non-fiction. My movie-viewing preferences happen to be quite similar – comedies and dramas are terrific, but I’m also a documentary fanatic. As a matter of fact, I have rented or watched more than 125 documentaries (and mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap) over the last six years.

There have been a slew of non-fiction books written about the recent global financial crisis, including the ones I reviewed: Too Big to Fail, The Greatest Trade Ever, and The Big Short. When it comes to videos, I have seen several TV-based documentaries covering various aspects of the global meltdown, but the Inside Job did an exceptionally good job of providing a global perspective of the financial collapse. The film was produced, written, and directed by Charles Ferguson (you can call him “doctor” thanks to the Ph.D he earned at MIT) and also narrated by Academy Award winner Matt Damon. The Inside Job provided a comprehensive worldly view by filming on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China. Not only did Ferguson break down the complex facets of the crisis into easily digestible pieces for the audience, but he also features prominent journalists, politicians, and academics who describe the complicated global events from a birds-eye view. Hedge fund manager George Soros,  former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, and economist Nouriel Roubini, are a small subset of the heavy-hitters interviewed in the movie.

A wide range of causes and effects were explored – everything from derivatives, lack of regulation, excessive banker compensation, and the pervasive conflicts of interest throughout the financial system. Bankers and politicians shoulder much of the blame for the global crisis, and Ferguson does not go out of his way to present their side of the story.  Ferguson does a fairly decent job of keeping his direct personal political views out of the film, but based on his undergraduate Berkeley degree and his non-stop Goldman Sachs (GS) bashing, I think someone could profitably prevail in wagering on which side of the political fence Ferguson resides.

Although I give Inside Job a “thumbs-up,” I wasn’t the only person who liked the movie. The Inside Job in fact won numerous awards, including the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Best Documentary from the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild.

Slome’s Oscar Nominees

As I mentioned previously, I am somewhat fanatical when it comes to documentaries, although I have yet to see Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Besides the Inside Job, here is a varied list of must-see documentaries. There may be a conflict of personal tastes on a few of these, but I will provide you a hand-written apology for anybody that falls asleep to more than one of my top 15:

1)      Murderball

2)      A Crude Awakening  

3)      Touching the Void

4)      It Might Get Loud

5)      Hoop Dreams

6)      Lewis and Clark: The Journey (Ken Burns)

7)       The Staircase

8)      Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

9)      Cracking the Code of Life  

10)   Paradise Lost

11)   The Endurance

12)   Devil’s Playground  

13)   Everest: Beyond the Limit

14)   The Devil Came on Horseback

15)   Emmanuel’s Gift

I’m obviously biased about the quality of my recommended documentaries, but you can even the score by sharing some of your favorite documentaries in the comment section below or by emailing me directly. I will be greatly indebted for any suggestions offered. Regardless, whether watching a truth-revealing thought-piece like the Inside Job or A Crude awakening, or an inspirational story like Murderball or Touching the Void, I’m convinced that these reality based stories are much more fascinating than the vast majority of recycled fiction continually shoveled out by Hollywood. For those adventurous movie-watchers, check out a documentary or two – who knows…there may be an inner-documentary fanatic in you too?

Wade W. Slome, CFA, CFP® 

Plan. Invest. Prosper. 

www.Sidoxia.com

DISCLOSURE: Sidoxia Capital Management (SCM) and some of its clients own certain exchange traded funds, but at the time of publishing SCM had no direct position in GS, or any other security referenced in this article. No information accessed through the Investing Caffeine (IC) website constitutes investment, financial, legal, tax or other advice nor is to be relied on in making an investment or other decision. Please read disclosure language on IC “Contact” page.

Entry filed under: Banking, Financial Markets. Tags: 2008 meltdown, Academy Award, Charles Ferguson, documentaries, films, financial crisis, Financial Markets, Inside Job, Matt Damon, movies, Murderball, Oscars.