Listpost | 2023.11.12

Duck Tales Scrooge skiing money bin

Here is my running ranking of Wall Street/finance/scam films:

1. The Big Short (2015)


A smart/funny drama that follows the handful of people that saw the 2008 Global Financial Crisis coming. This film excels in its explanation of the GFC both at a high level and through its ground-level stories. It also takes a refreshingly honest approach to the 'based on a true story' genre.

2. Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)


Enron's rise and fall told in a documentary that will make your blood boil. E:TSGitR covers Enron's scammy accounting methods, Apple-like cultishness, and (with audio transcripts) Texan schadenfreude toward California.

3. Margin Call (2011)


An unofficial counterpart to The Big Short, Margin Call tells the story of a Wall Street firm the night it realizes the bubble is popping. It isn't as heavy-handed in its condemnation of investment banks/bankers as you might expect; the characters are complex and personable.

4. The China Hustle (2017)


Investment movie night finally goes abroad with this documentary about the reverse takeover (RTO)/Muddy Waters saga of the early 20-teens. The China Hustle describes short sellers' investigations into the hazards of speculating across sovereign borders.

5. Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis (2018)


An unofficial counterpart to The Big Short and Margin Call, Panic is a documentary that focuses less on the causation of the GFC and more on the response. This might be dry to some, but it drips with intrigue if you're into macroeconomics and/or government.

6. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)


Elizabeth Holmes once asked the question, "What if we did a Fyre Festival but instead of music and tents it was blood testing?" The answer was Theranos and it became an HBO documentary in 2019. She was convicted in 2022.

7. MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street (2023)


Ponzis are the vanilla ice cream of scams but Bernie's had more scoops than anyone else. The Netflix docuseries isn't bad, but not as compelling as some of the competition.
In queue

... maybe, I'm not sure how many variations on the Gamestop movie I need to see. Most of the following synopses I grabbed from a WSB comment.

Rogue Trader (1999)


Dramatized recount of the Nick Leeson derivatives market blowup. Similar energy to The Big Short but a bit darker.

The Wall Street Code (2013)


Very insightful documentary on YouTube about high-frequency trading and algorithm-based analysis.

The Hummingbird Project (2018)


Drama about building fiber for HFT; a bit cheesy but entertaining.

Too Big to Fail (2011)


Dramatized recount of how the Fed bailed out the Big Banks.

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street (2010)


Insightful documentary about quantitative trading.

Dumb Money (2023)


The theatrical Gamestop movie.

Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga (2022)


The Netflix Gamestop docuseries

Gaming Wall St (2022)


The HBO Gamestop docuseries
Still to come

Working titles, not yet in production afaik:




◄
2023.11.07

Appropriations

 Reading the transcript of oral arguments from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America.
2023.11.17

Friendsgiving

 Friendsgiving in SF and some board games. 		►


Related / internal

Some posts from this site with similar content.

Post
2023.01.30

Money and boredom

 The Netflix Madoff documentary and revisiting some other national figures.
Post
2024.02.22

Rebel Moon

 Rebel Moon was not good.
Post
2020.09.09

The four horsemen

 Ill portents, investment films, and surf photos.

Related / external

Risky click advisory: these links are produced algorithmically from a crawl of the subsurface web (and some select mainstream web). I haven't personally looked at them or checked them for quality, decency, or sanity. None of these links are promoted, sponsored, or affiliated with this site. For more information, see this post.
soberlook.com

Sober Look: Join us at The Daily Shot

 Please join us at The Daily Shot . The Daily Shot® (TheDailyShot.com) is a niche graphical newsletter ( see sample ) that is not meant for...
Has a preview image link and yet 404 :/
simplelivingsomerset.wordpress.com

looking back to the GFC and the fraying edge that followed - Simple Living In Somerset

 I first came across the FI/RE movement in the aftermath of the GFC. I wanted to retire early, and regarded FI as a means to an end. Life was simpler then, there were quite a few wage slaves trying to reduce their costs and learn about investing to retire early. You could believe that it...
Has a preview image link and yet 404 :/
thenakedhedgie.com

Theranos Scandal: The REAL Story (1/3) - THE ONENESS of HUMANITY

 Was Theranos' miniature "miracle" blood tester the original Plan A for greatly exaggerating COVID-19 "cases" before a handful of individuals brought down the Theranos house of cards, embarrassing Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James "Mad Dog" Mattis and other very powerful people in the process, - whereupon PCR tests (run at cycle counts over 35 cycles...

Created 2024.10 from an index of 420,082 pages.