“Inside Jobs” discussion question

Inside Job is a documentary about the global financial meltdown that occurred in 2008, yet many signs of concerns began earlier.  The “Great Recession”, as it is called in the United States, caused millions of job and home losses.

This documentary “provides a detailed examination of the elements that led to the collapse and identifies keys financial and political players. Director Charles Ferguson conducts a wide range of interviews and traces the story from the United States to China to Iceland to several other global financial hot spots.”

Whereas the US and the world have primarily emerged from this financial crisis, the Inside Job documentary, although very informative, is not usually viewed as an uplifting movie.  Keep that in mind when choosing your viewing time.

 Required:

After watching the Inside Job documentary, respond to each of the following 4 prompts below (1-2 paragraph for each question).  Please remember there are no right answers; we respect your thoughts and opinion.

1. What were your initial reactions watching the documentary?
2. The documentary opened discussing how hard the financial collapse hit Iceland. The Icelandic government chose to give bailout proceeds to the average Icelander impacted, instead of bailing out the banks.  Iceland also focused on criminal proceedings against involved bankers.  This is the opposite of what was done in the US.  What are your thoughts on these actions done by the Icelandic government?
3. Opine on the inter-connectedness of corporate and government stakeholders.
4. Based on what you heard in the documentary, and your own opinion on this, do you believe there should be more of a separation between corporations and education? Why or why not?