Parents' Guide to Inside Job

This Oscar-winning documentary does a great job of explaining the financial terms and policies at the heart of the 2008 crisis, while still retaining a thriller-like approach. And there are some "thrilling" moments in director Charles Ferguson's Inside Job, particularly when talking heads are challenged on their "truths" and appear shocked and flustered in response. As the movie goes on to portray, it's because a lot of these figures—whether directly trading, making government policies, "regulating," or putting their name to paid-for academic "analysis"—were never really held to account.

The documentary begins in Iceland exploring the effects of the country's deregulation and privatization and spans various U.S. administrations (neither "side" gets off scott-free here). It covers the hedonistic highs of traders' increasing risks for the sake of short-term profits and bonuses—often knowing there was no chance of loans being paid back, and even betting against the very products they were selling to unsuspecting customers. It shines a light on the money laundering, defrauding of customers, and cooking books. The money involved in drugs and weapons and the ways those details were "lost" or hidden. It shows how deep the greed and corruption runs, and ties together a wide array of industries in a way that starts to explain why prosecutions weren't pursued—at every step there seems to be someone with a very vested interest in protecting those involved. Then there's the more "human" side of the knock-on effect—the £150 billion in taxpayer money for bailouts, the millions who lost life savings, jobs, and homes. There's footage of people living in make-shift camps after their mortgages spiraled far beyond their reach. Even though there's little new information here, it's a reminder of the dangers of unregulated and corrupt financial systems, and how quickly they could run amok again.