American Casino Trailer

Politicians and the media like to talk about the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street, but investigative journalist Leslie Cockburn's debut feature gets to the guts of the matter, visiting defectors from Bear Stearns and Standard and Poor's and other high-level players in the subprime mortgage gamble and, on the flipside, visiting the working-class Americans who were the unwitting chips on the table. Screening at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. For more information and tickets, visit www.tribecafilm.com/festival.

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[TR930]

They offered a house, people took them up on it. In the end, they ended up right where they started. The BIG story is that Wall Street took BIG risks and DID NOT PAY for losing those bets. It's no casino, a casino has hard and fast rules and if you lose as the House or the Gambler, YOU LOSE. What happened here is outright theft of taxpayer dollars. I think the word Extortion comes to mind. "Bail us out or we blow up the economy overnight".

[tymjar]

And people at which income level do you think were making theses "bets" on the loses (suffering) of others? You can bet it was largely people with hefty incomes, the weatthy and VERY wealthy, who are the collectors on bets mortgages would not be payed. This is a class issue that gives that 1% of our economic classes (the very wealthy) ALL the advantages.

[andyissemicool]

@Sirbatch13: Yeah, but that just turns homeowners into gamblers, too. Not to mention a giant portion of these subprime loans weren't for new houses for people, but for refinancing their existing homes.

[Sirbatch13]

@TheFirstStormrider OK honestly, if you were poor living in a s*&t hole and someone came to you and said for the same money you can live in a nice house, you wouldn't take them up on it? Most of them were even told that the loan was going to ballon in 5 years - but they were also told that it was worth the risk because all the experts were saying the prices of homes were forcasted to keep increasing and when you get some equity you'll just re-fi.

[TheFirstStormrider]

my question is why don't people look at the supposed "victims" who chose to buy a house they could in no way afford? when i looked into buying my first house i made sure i was able to afford it. if it sounds too good to be true, it is. i am not defending wallstreet or the mortgage people, but people need to be responsible for their own actions as well. everyone wants to point fingers and call every little problem a conspiricy.

[ParallaxFilm]

Interesting controversy.

[pjamesbda]

@paulsworkshop - ok, I have to ask what great opportunity do you have for the people who trusted their lenders. Maybe you have another trust scam, or maybe you can show us a more inventive way to capitalize on the misery this has created. Sounds like we can all make something for doing nothing...man is this every interesting!

[paulsworkshop]

Hello all you victims. Would you like to get on the "right" side of the trade and be a winner for a change. The simple bet has been shorting the dollar for the past 9 months. The trend won't wash for another 6 months. Get on board and make some real money.

[1RoaringMonk]

These are the crooks - youtube search Oregon PERS and Lone Star to Cash in on Foreclosures !!!!Judges pension plan

[thequake180]

the US economy works like any casino in Vegas, the House (Wall Street) usually wins and eventually ends up with all the chips, and the customer goes home broke.

the casino economy can't go on forever, sooner or later the bubble implodes.