American Casino

An analysis of how a lack of rules and a surplus of faith in the market led to the collapse of the American banking system, which is compared to a casino. Experts and former employees who were involved in the overheated system sketch a picture of imprudent loans, neglected control procedures, and risks that were passed on to speculators, insurance companies, and mortgage lenders. is critical about how the government rewarded banks for their mismanagement by underwriting them, while the black population got hit disproportionately hard by housing foreclosures. Shots of gleaming bank offices contrast with impoverished neighborhoods in Baltimore. Talking heads are interspersed with testimony from the likes of Alan Greenspan at hearings. A large part of the film is accompanied by background music from Moby, but it also includes raps about the crisis. A mosquito exterminator complains about the increased health risks that the crisis has brought because of mosquito larvae that are luxuriously thriving in the abandoned swimming pools of Southern California. In Malibu, a rich and powerful man explains how he got even richer by winning "the lottery," with the bet that all the loans would not be paid off.