A high-tech entrepreneur, policy wonk, and academic, Ferguson has a different style than other documentarians. Errol Morris (The Fog of War) is the interrogator who keeps subjects on their toes. Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) is the confrontationalist who puts them on the defensive. Ferguson (No End in Sight) is the conversationalist who gets them to speak matter-of-factly.
And if his subject fudges or stretches the facts, the off-camera Ferguson will refocus him (the players here are almost exclusively male) with a "Seriously?" or "You've got to be kidding."
Inside Job's overture is a recap of Iceland's financial meltdown, an early warning of the global collapse because of widespread investment in subprime mortgages. Beginning his film with the economic and physical landscape of the fire-and-ice nation provides a preview of the fiscal volatility to come.
What went wrong? Ferguson points to the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era legislation crafted in response to the 1929 stock-market crash. Once depository banks could merge with investment houses, the floodgates were open.
The result was a round robin of collusion. Bankers encouraged risky investments in subprime mortgages even as they used credit default swaps to protect their own exposure. University professors were commissioned by financial-services outfits to testify to the fundamentals of such dubious investments. Rating agencies such as Moody's certified bonds, making them seem secure. And the Federal Reserve had no reservations.
Ferguson focuses on the mutual back-scratching arrangements between the financial-services industry and free-market academics that made such risky business practices appear prudent.
