Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis (2018) User Reviews

Good, well made documentary, but doesn't question enough the actions

[RIK-22 · 7/10 · 20 December 2018]

Really professional documentary with all the key players involved, certainly giving me an insight into the motivations and hard work behind keeping the US and probably the world economy afloat. However...what was disappointing was the lack of challenge to the actions that took place, the lack of a counter view. All we got was the acknowledgement that they realised their actions were unpopular, but they maintained they were necessary.

The government, financial watchdogs and banks caused the recession due to a combination of actions. Successive governments starting with Reagan and leading to the present day have removed the "checks and balances" that were in place to prevent another depression. Where are the consequences for these people?

• How can any system & country be in a situation where a private company can destroy the economy and create misery for millions?
• Why weren't measures and controls in place to ensure this didn't happen?
• Why weren't all the management removed for all the companies involved?
• What measures are now in place?
• What retrospective actions has or is happening to hold the banking system accountable for the misery they created?

Unfortunately, in the end we only got the perspective of the people that caused this crisis and how they went about trying to fix it.

There were other options; how about nationalising the banks to ensure credit was lent to businesses (I know the US is irrationally against any form of socialism, but this was a viable option). A recession is not caused by the banks going bankrupt, it was caused by the lack of "credit" being available to businesses and people, so resolve that issue, rather than just keeping the guilty people in a job and maintaining a morally corrupt system.

Anyway, it was a well-made documentary, just too one sided and no real challenging questions were put to the people who caused the problem.

Riveting documentary with all the main players looking back, now a decade later

[paul-allaer · 8/10 · 23 September 2020]

"Panic: The Untold Story of the 20098 financial Crisis" (2018 release; 96 min.) is a documentary on the roots of the 2008 financial crisis, how the crisis itself unfolded, and most importantly, the unintended long-term consequences of it all. As the documentary opens, we are "September 11, 2018", as all of the main players from a decade earlier get together for a remembrance dinner. We then go back to "May 9, 2006", not long after Henk Paulson has joined the Bush administration as the Treasury Secretary, and the market is showing signs of a housing bubble. It sets into motion a financial crisis of unimaginable proportions. At this point we are 10 min. into the film.

Couple of comments: the film makers concentrate on the three main guys: then Treasury Secretary Henk Paulson, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Timothy Geithner, and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. These three band together as a triumvirate and rarely decide anything without consulting each other. Interestingly, all three make clear that they are motivated to do whatever it takes to avoid another Great Depression. Of course many others are featured as well. Several things are striking: (i) when facing calamity, the political leaders in Washington came together and acted in a bipartisan way that is simply and utterly unthinkable in today's climate; (ii) "we should've done a better job explaining to the public what we were doing", sighs Paulson, and he is right of course; mostly lost in the narrative of the financial industry's bailout is the inconvenient truth that all of the $700 billion TARP bailout money was repaid WITH INTEREST to the US government; (iii) perhaps most surprisingly, former President George W. Bush comes across as a calming yet resolute leader who lets the experts do their job (meaning, the complete opposite of the current POTUS).

The last 15 min. of the documentary are the most revealing, as it just "the straight line between the the financial crisis and the populism in today's politics, linked by the rise of the Tea Party starting in 2009. It is absolutely devastating to see how in just a single decade we are now living in a world of untruths, disinformation, lies, conspiracy theorists, the real v. imagined "deep state", and the shocking incompetence and complete lack of leadership coming from the current POTUS and his administration. Meanwhile, "Panic: The Untold Truth of the 2008 Financial Crisis" is a riveting documentary that contains a lot of valuable lessons to understand how we got where we are today.

Great re-telling of the '08 financial meltdown, could do without the anti-Trump nonsense at the end of the film.

[YolkyPalky · 8/10 · 19 February 2019]

I thought this documentary was a great re-telling and explanation of all the moving parts of the '08 financial crisis. Having the key players interviewed and explain their thought processes was a good way to tell the story.

The obligatory Holly-weird anti-Trump nonsense at the end of the film was wholly unnecessary and seemed beyond oddly out of place. But, what else can we expect from Holly-weird these days than to blame anything on Trump.

Aside from the absurd connection of Trump to the '08 financial crisis, the film was very good.

better go for "the inside job"(2010).

[eldelsak · 14 May 2021]

'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

It presents a whole different perspective.

[nido_emiab · 9/10 · 16 December 2018]

This Documentary is made as good as you can make it about a very big problem that was felt all around the world. What is more important then the artistic perspection is the story, and for those of us who care (US or non- US), to know how the crysis started, and how efforts were put in to downsize it's effects! It's presented from the inside, from the Government's perspective, and if you put politics and masses psychology aside, you will get a real feel about the effects of the actions that some people make for the greater good.

Best review of the management of the crisis and political reactions

[markregets · 10/10 · 16 December 2019]

So much that is done discussing 2008 is intensely ideological and biased. This is much better than that.

They says, it's not our fault

[neraprojects · 1/10 · 12 November 2019]

Sorry but this isn't a documentary, it's BS propaganda that wants to say: we saved you, with your money!

This fancy celebratory style movie presents the whole different and wrong perspective

[m-khmelnitskiy · 3/10 · 24 July 2019]

First, the initial vote in Congress was on a 3-page plan and that's why it was rejected by angry congressmen who were willing to know how the money would be spend. There is no mentioning that the Congress requested Bernanke to present a detailed plan and a few days later it was accepted. Secondly, under Bernanke the treasury and SEC were doing virtually nothing to monitor financial institutions and to alarm the public. All of a sudden the credit rating agencies that failed to properly assess risks before announced a massive downgrade of 400+ companies at once, which triggered the huge panic. And finally, Paulson did very little to prevent a crisis in 2007 and could push much stronger to cap bonuses and CEO's salaries and did very little, nothing to be proud of. GWB proved his incompetence in selecting a treasure secretary as in almost everything else he did. Those "heroes" brought significant wealth to their friends among bankers and robbed millions.

OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

[hughman55 · 1/10 · 3 January 2019]

Don't believe a word of this crap. Oh, you can believe the part about how the world economy collapsed in 2008. Let's call that the forest fire that burned down the world economy. Now, how did the fire start? Camp fire? Lightening? No. It was deliberately set by arsonists. Now imagine all those arsonists getting together and talking about how bad the fire was. And how they saved so many of us from being engulfed by that fire. What balls...

The first match that was lit for this economic inferno was the passage of the Graham/Leach/Bliley Congressional Bill of 1999. You know who didn't suffer one penny during this financial meltdown? Bankers!!! This may not the the first time a bank robbery was committed by the BANK against citizens, but it sure was the biggest and most egregious. Make a documentary about that HBO!

White Wash

[havingsomuchfun · 1/10 · 28 June 2019]

Obviously an attempt by the ultra rich/powerful to white was their crimes. HBO journalism just lost my trust.

Council on Foreign Relations?

[flst-54590 · 1/10 · 6 April 2020]

Looks like they funded this in part? Certainly appears to be slanted. Documentary?

Fluff piece

[pcarlssons-32546 · 1/10 · 28 December 2018]

To give billions to the rich is in this doc a good thing. The film make heroes of everybody involved, never ask any hard questions, or even easy questions. They just let everybody tell us how good they are and how they saved the world. The american tax payer, who financed it all - are not even given a voice. And of course they even make Obama out to be the supestar too, as always. This is NOT how a documentary should be done. Avoid.

A work of fiction

[sterneesh · 1/10 · 3 June 2021]

This appears to be a very competent and professional documentary, until you get towards the conclusion where all of the heroes miraculously turn out to be democrats. The republicans merely stumbled their way through this tumultuous event and were graciously saved by the democrats. Nancy Pelosi - Hero, John McCain - idiot, Barack Obama - Hero, George W. - idiot (save for the wisdom of the democrats he listened to).

You know when your narrator is fiction writer, Andrew Sorkin, that you are getting more showbiz than real unbiased content. Directed by John Maggio who has done more content for NPR than anything else, so you know you are getting some serious left leaning material. Of course in the final few minutes they all roll their eyes as they show video of a Trump rally.

Annoying

[kdanell · 1/10 · 27 January 2019]

I like to watch vice reports but it's impossible to hear anyone talking through that ridiculous music they insist on playing during the whole movie.

Slick democrat propaganda backing the establishment narrative, one giant appeal to authority

[tetrahex · 24 December 2018]

This one sided "documentary" is simply the establishment narrative as told by a bunch of democrat producers. A quick check of their social media reveals them as complete partisans, and its telling that the Bush era conservative who was once derided as Hitler are now one and the same with the Obama democrat. The documentary questions nothing, likely the reason why they were able to get the politicians and talking heads to interview as it puts them in a flattering light, and then at the end comes the snipe the current administration for not going with the program. Slickly produced to be flattering, its simply propaganda to reinforce a convenient narrative questioning nothing.