Money For Nothing: Inside The Federal Reserve

Two nights ago I found myself sitting on the couch with my beautiful girlfriend. We were just relaxing with no certain plans in mind. She was playing a game on her computer so I decided that I wanted to watch something on TV. We don’t currently have cable in my household but we do have Netflix and Hulu. So I immediately fired up Netflix to find something to watch. My girlfriend and I both have our own list of shows to watch under the same account. Needless to say that my list is very different from hers. Since she was busy playing her game on the computer, I decided that I would watch something off of my list. Anyone that knows me, knows that I enjoy documentaries because of their ability to entertain as well as educate all at the same time. It didn’t take me long to find a very appealing one on my list.

The movie I found was released in 2013 and was titled Money For Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve. It covered over a 100 years of history about the Federal Reserve which is the central bank that oversees the U.S. Dollar. The organization was founded around 1913 and has been the center of several financial crisis that this country has been through including The Great Depression. The movie covers all of the major events but the main focus is on more contemporary times.

The film really gets interesting when it gets to the Paul Volcker era of the Fed. Inflation had gotten out of control by the early 80s, so Paul Volker made some very tough decisions and decided to raise interest rates to extremely high levels. Despite not being a well liked decision, it did prove to be the right one. Short term pain for long term gain!

If Volker is looked at as the hero in the movie then Alan Greenspan would be looked at as the villain, even though he didn’t start out that way. When the crash of 1987 happened Greenspan was able to safely navigate the situation with what appeared to be all of the right moves. Then in 94-95 he was able to perform some soft landings of the market, so that there wouldn’t be a huge crash. As he is performing all of these maneuvers it is looking great on the surface but what is really going on is a lot of easy money is being printed.

Greenspan had passed the torch by the time that the financial crisis happened in 2008 despite leading us there most of the way. Ben Bernanke was his successor and in the film is depicted to be leading the country to another huge financial crisis.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. I was able to learn how the Fed had reacted to events that had happened during previous eras, both good and bad. The director did a good job of painting the story through pictures and video clips of previous and current Fed members as well as historians, financial experts and many more. This film could be enjoyed by a lot of different people but especially if you have even a small interest in money or finance.

If you have seen this movie or any that are similar, please let me know! I’m always open to learning about new movies that are recommended to me. Please feel free to leave any comments or questions down below. Until next time happy investing!