Money Monster

SPOILER WARNING!

Money Monster, the latest Hollywood film about finance, provides us with an (exaggeratedly chauvinist) market guru (George Clooney) – probably inspired by the CNBC’s very vociferous market expert Jim Kramer – and his financial tip show Money Monster, which is suddenly interrupted by a gun-slinging viewer, hijacking the live show. Together with the producer of the show (Julia Roberts) they come to uncover an 800-million dollar fraud case, the discovery of which does not end well for all.

The relatively early highlight of the film is the market guru addressing the live audience with the plea to save his life by buying the stock that lost the kidnapper his savings, and thus to reinstall its previous stock value. Perfectly staged with the right punch – well done Jodie Foster (director).

In addition to the issue of high frequency trading, which is treated only marginally, the problem of uncontrolled pushing of shares and its impact is addressed. How important is morality, where money is concerned? One hot tip per day, to keep the money machine running. Someone must eventually pay the host’s wages.

On the whole, there have been more notable films about the stock market, such as my (nearly empty-handed) favorite for the Oscars 2016 ‘ The big short’ (with a convincing Christian Bale) or ‘The wolf of Wall Street’, or – if you have more time – the current series ‘Billions’ with Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti. Nevertheless, for newcomers to the subject, Money Monster provides a good time and a look behind the scenes, asking the question of morality and of right and wrong in the world of money, where the media are concerned. Just don’t expect too many answers.

Translation from German: Serena Nebo

Credits

Image	Title	Author	License
	Money_Monster	Georges Biard	CC BY-SA 3.0