Ferguson: The financial meltdown up close isn't pretty

Why isn't there more popular outrage over "a crime story like no other in history" - a.k.a, the 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown?

Charles Ferguson, the Oscar-winning director of "Inside Job," suspects many people find the financial services industry just too complicated to understand. The industry is awash with obscure jargon. Additionally, digital technology has complicated and fundamentally changed how the industry operates, to the point traders are studying computer programming and computing.

But Ferguson believes people CAN understand what's going on, with a little effort. The official Inside Job website has a study guide for teachers, complete with hands-on activities and a list of players. This is pretty radical stuff. I'd be interested in finding out how many K-12 teachers are using it.

If you still just can't see yourself spending money on a documentary about the financial services industry, you might want to listen to Ferguson being interviewed at the Commonwealth Club of California. The audience is clearly on Ferguson's side, and a sense of outrage comes alive after the first few minutes. I haven't seen the film, but I plan to after listening to this show. For example...

Ferguson, a former software entrepreneur and technical policy academic and consultant, commented "too bad" when informed some people on Wall Street didn't like their portrayal in his film.

"How did you get to be such a tough guy?" asked the Commonwealth interviewer.

"Well, I've been one for awhile actually. Partially perhaps the way I was raised, I don't know. When I was an academic, certainly it was quite routine to get into tough fights - intellectual fights, not personal ones. People were very direct about their views of each other's ideas."

Ferguson also talked about his Ph.D. thesis advisor, a man who had spent real time out in the read world.

"I remember one time when I complained to him that I was under a lot of pressure, and he kind of smiled and said, 'Charles, let me tell you about the Cuban missle crisis. That's pressure. Your problems are not pressure.' So he set a high standard."

Then there was the time he spent filming in Iraq. It sounds more interesting via audio.

As good as Inside Job is (at least I think it is), we need more articles, films. photos, and general documentation about the impact of the financial meltdown from a variety of perspectives and social levels. History is in the making - and with digital technology perhaps more of it can be collectively shaped than in the past.

For more insight about "Inside Job" or the Charles Ferguson writing, please consider the following;