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

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

  RIK-222018-12-20

  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? 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.

• Fluff piece

  pcarlssons-325462018-12-28

  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.

• OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

  hughman552019-01-03

  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!

• It presents a whole different perspective.

  nido_emiab2018-12-16

  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.

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

  tetrahex2018-12-24

  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 which questions nothing.