The Flaw

Following a similar path previously travailed by "Inside Job", David Sington's moving exploration of the financial meltdown that brought about the current recession, will be admired as a documentary for its attempt to explain the financial crash in terms that all can easily identify with.

Sington talks to people such as housing expert Robert Shiller (who offers some particularly perceptive comments) and also to the likes of Ed Andrews who despite being the Economics correspondent for the New York Times, still found himself facing bankruptcy from ill-judged personal investment gambles that went wrong when the financial bubble burst.

Interweaving Michael Moore-like cartoons and some palatable dark humour, Sington combines personal stories of financial crisis with alarming statistics that confirm that the rich are pretty much immune from harm, whilst the poorer majority not only lost personal savings but also suffered because wages didn't increase markedly for decades.

The Flaw includes entertaining footage of one Alan Greenspan the Federal Reserve guru who concedes before Congress that a system that was supposed to be immune from meltdown had a 'fundamental flaw' and boy did the rest of us suffer because of it.

The Flaw as a documentary may not have the the Matt Damon slinky voiceover that graced 'Inside Job', but it does have instead, a palatable approach to the economics and a desire to bring in bankers, borrowers, former traders and economic experts to explain what happened. Sington is able to glean some startling statistics which make uncomfortable reading even now and it was fun seeing a former Bond trader now doing tours for tourists to explain the Wall Street crash. Worth seeking out.