American Madness - The Banking Crisis

We're being rocked by a global economic melt down...and we never seem to learn.

This meltdown is a crisis created by greed and weak regulation. Rich corporations run by rich people trying to get richer; and to make it more fun to analyze, the basis of this credit crisis is the middle class trying to act rich. So here we are, banks folding, investors panicking, governments over-reacting and the average consumer delaying that big ticket item purchase.

There is going to be pain on a monumental scale, but nothing as silly as economic pain or pain to national pride, this is real pain. The pain of people losing their jobs, losing their houses, trying to figure out how to feed their kids, and the whole time trying to keep it together while not to appear as a disappointment in their children's eyes. There will be thousands of people who will be affected, they will leave their hometowns, fall victim to addictions of all types, and marriages and families will fall apart.

These people will not be featured in the news at 6:00 and 11:00 other than a patronizing "The Faces of Pain" segment, designed to make the viewing public think that the media cares about them...well, cares about them until the story airs and they move on to the next "Face of Pain."

The current crisis is being portrayed as the "next depression" and the bank instability seems to offer parallels easily drawn. In 1932 Frank Capra directed, and Robert Riskin wrote a movie called American Madness. The story is about a simple event that turns into a panic and then a run on a bank. The characters must act to hold it all together.

There are two particular clips from that movie that have particular relevance today. The first is a beautifully crafted piece of movie-making that establishes the ferocity with which economic crisis can spread.



The second clip is a fine piece of speech-making that sums up what we should have learned in the 1930's. We failed to learn, and, as happens with all foolish societies, we are about to suffer the same consequences. Warning: this clip smacks of socialism. For the extreme right-wingers in the crowd this might cause rashes or depravity. You were warned.