Close to the Brink: HBO's Too Big to Fail

"Too Big to Fail" is one of the best HBO movies in some time, based on the Andrew Ross Sorkin book, it is a highly dramatic, thoroughly credible account of the days in September 2009 when the entire American (and global) financial system nearly melted down. Focus is on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen and his struggles, personal and political, as he sets aside his ideological belief in free markets and gets the government to step in and bail out the banks. Paulsen does some heroic things, but he's not a hero, as few in politics ever really are - movie makes clear that he could have and should have demanded more from the banks - he had to push to get them (especially the supposedly healthier ones) to accept federal involvement (government bought billions of preferred stock in 9 banks), and refused to require the banks to give that money out in loans to spur the economy. Also, his entire focus was on saving the banks, and not a word about saving the people whom the banks had screwed, through foreclosures and, ultimately, through unemployment. Never the less, I part with many of my progressive friends on this in that I do give him a lot of credit for taking action - as few Republicans would have done. The movie largely gets the tone of government workers during time of crisis just right - the many meetings, conferences, cell-phone calls, lots of good acting from a range of (mostly white male) actors, notably Giamotti (William Hurt OK in lead, too). Only one stilted scene, when concept of credit default swaps explained in a totally stagy office conversation. Otherwise, movie is tense and dramatic and kind of scary as we see how close we were to the brink.