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Reviews
End of the Road: How Money Became Worthless (2012)
Misleading and flawed out-of-date thesis, expounded as truth
Let's first examine the subtitle of this movie, "how money became worthless". Presumably, money here refers to currency, although in the movie it is stated that currency does not deserve the word "money", only precious metals do. In any case, money is _not_ worthless. In major countries including America currencies have become increasingly stable and have thus retained plenty of value for buying goods. The fact that the movie contains a falsehood in its title is indicative of the entire content.
A major misleading point in this movie is that it claims that all money is created by government borrowing. This is far from the truth. A huge amount of money is created in loans for mortgages, and other money is created in loans to companies. Both of these are backed by assets with persistent value (property and companies). There is no theoretical reason why a fiat currency system cannot function for a million years: this draws attention to the barefaced lie in the movie that fiat currencies are a Ponzi scheme. They are not, because they don't inevitably collapse. Rather, control of money supply can be maintained indefinitely in support of a productive economy.
Another falsehood is that fiat currencies inevitably suffer from excessive inflation. In fact, governments have been increasingly successful in keeping inflation where they want it (low but positive), the empirical optimum for an economy. The movie suggests that it was much better in the good old days of the 50's when everything was cheap. The truth is people were worse off in real terms in the 50s, and can buy a lot more now with their greater spending power.
A huge lie is told by "monetary historian" Mike Maloney, prominent in the movie, who claims that there is a proved 100% failure rate of fiat currencies. Perhaps he is forgetting that the world currently has nothing but fiat currencies, and that there are well over 100 of these that have not failed. This is an extraordinary example of blindness to the facts, both by so-called Mike Maloney, and by the editors of the movie. And we are not just talking about currencies that have been created recently. The pound sterling, the dollar, the yen and many others are currencies that have been around a long while and have been successful as fiat currencies. Indeed, perhaps the biggest problem among the major currencies has been the deflation problems in Japan, due to inadequate stimulus, rather than the hyperinflation that has never occurred to them.
Another example of pure baloney by Mike Maloney in the movie is when he claims most of the world's gold is stored in the vaults of the US and UK central banks. In truth, while the US does still hold a lot of gold (although its value is a small fraction of GDP these days), the UK is merely the 15th largest holder of gold. The developed countries recognise gold as a commodity of decreasing significance to a global economy where productivity matters more than Scrooge-like hoarding.
In fact ALL central banks hold merely 19% of the world's gold, proving it to be a commodity primarily of significance for its uses in jewelry and electrical contacts.
At the end of the movie, I felt I had found myself the unwitting recipient of a sales pitch, as the speakers repeatedly advised the audience to go buy gold. Not bad advice until the price topped out several months after the movie was released, but speculators should be advised the price of gold can go down as well as up.
Sole Survivor (2000)
Exciting movie with two layers
To the viewer this 4 hours of entertainment almost seems like two movies because of the spectacular revelations that occur in the second half, providing two layers of understanding of the events, like Russian dolls hidden within one another.
Initially the viewer is treated to a relatively down to earth story where a journalist who has lost his wife and daughter in a plane crash tries to uncover the truth behind the tantalising indications that his loved ones have survived, beyond all reasonable hope. The dark secrets behind the event are revealed later in the story, explaining the brutal deaths occurring to anyone who is close to the heart of the matter, and the truth of the stories of surviving the unsurvivable. The way the themes of the second half of the movie were developed justifies my high rating. I should declare these are sci-fi themes that are close to my heart as someone who, like many others, has at many times in my life had experiences of telepathy, and would dearly love to believe in the healing power of the mind. Of course the villains of this movie are exaggerated, but that makes us all the more keen to see them get their just deserts in the end. I am reminded of "the Net" another movie that is successful in getting the viewer involved with the central character and invested in the final outcome.
To those who commented negatively on this movie, based on reasons such as having short attention span or not liking Billy Zane's hair (no kidding), I imagine you have never found a wild bird staggering around close to death, picked it up in your hand and breathed warmth into it, and then seen it fly away full of energy. (Yes, I have). To anyone who would like to do so, I recommend this movie.