Economics and Foreign Films

The US economic situation is turning into a joke. The president and the Fed both believe that the economy can avoid a recession; however, to dodge the recession the Fed will focus on stabilizing the economy with rate cuts that allow banks to recover capital from defaulted loans. This will poor money into banks which will only increase inflation driving up the prices of consumer good particularly basic food stuffs and oil. The hope is that the stimulus package passed earlier this month passed by congress will help to encourage market stabilization.



Earlier this week I saw two foreign films. The first, Prisoner of the Mountain is a Russian film based on the short story Prisoner of the Causes by Tolstoy. The film is about two Russian soldiers who are captured during the Russian-Chechen War and held as prisoners while their Chechen overseer awaits ransom. While the acting and cinematography are sometimes laughable the story itself is interesting and contains some laugh out loud moments. The other film was the first in a series of ten by the famous Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski called The Decalogue. Each film is loosely based on the one of the Ten Commandments. The first film examines the commandment "I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before Me..." . This film was a really great interpretation of the commandment where a man's belief in logic and reason is challenged by his young son. I would recommend this film and I am curious to see the others.