This screening of The Bonfire of the Vanities is part of the Crisis! film series which takes place on select Tuesdays throughout the spring 2012 semester and explores the global economic crisis.
For more on the film, see a New York Timesreview from 1990.
Using classic and contemporary films and expert commentators, Crisis! engages the community in discussion about the current global economic crisis. The panelists include experts from Buffalo State’s faculty and the community. Audiences can expect a broad spectrum of views, as we aim to stimulate lively discussion and debate.
In the 1980s, the obscure business of the bond trader suddenly became a new center of economic, political and cultural power. Yuppie financiers fancied themselves “masters of the universe” as their pay, their privileges and their partying reached heights not seen since the 1920s. Yet right up the street from this new zone of excess risk and empowered irresponsibilty, persistent poverty shaped the lives of millions. Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman star in this Hollywood version of Tom Wolfe’s piercing social satire of the excesses of Wall Street’s new era. Or at least its early days.
Moderators:
Dr. Ted Schmidt, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Finance
Dr. Albert Michaels, Professor, Department of History
Bruce Fisher, Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies
Students from the following Buffalo State courses are required to attend these screenings: Economic System 101, Urban Economics 312, Intermediate Macroeconomics (ECO308), Corporation Finance (FIN314), and Investments (FIN414)
Additional films being presented in this series are:
March 13, Client #9
March 27, Inside Job
April 10, Capitalism: A Love Story
April 17, Wall Street