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A timely call to action, BOOM BUST BOOM investigates the worldwide economic crash of 2008, and how we can avoid another global collapse in the future. Analyzing the direct link between the unstable financial system and our reliance on mainstream economics, the film puts a spotlight on the mistakes of the past some politicians and central bankers would like us to forget.

Taking as its starting point the 2008 economic crisis, Monty Python Terry Jones walks us through the history of crashes. In the years leading up to the most recent economic crash, lending had become so reckless a third of all homeowners bought houses with so called ninja loans between 2004 5. Borrowers could state their assets without the need for evidence, and mortgages were approved. The riskiest lending created a domino effect throughout all lending, suddenly banks distrusted each other and debts were not renewed. This liquidity crisis saw the banks collapse in succession.

The crash shocked the world, but how did experts not see it coming? Crashes have been happening throughout history for centuries, from Tulip Mania in 1637 to the South Sea Bubble of 1720 to the Wall Street crash of 1929 and many in between and after. The speculative euphoria pre empting each crash is not an isolated phenomenon but intrinsic to human nature. We spend money hoping wonderful things will happen to us in the future and invent explanations to justify extended borrowing and spending, recklessly optimistic.

SYNOPSISJones asks, in this case, are we are able to recognise a bubble when we are in one? One economist, Hyman Minsky, spent decades discredited by his peers until 2008 when his life’s work on the inevitability of crashes proved prophetic and experts finally recognized Minsky might be on to something. However, as the world recovers from its latest crash, it’s all too likely Minsky will be forgotten and the cycle of boom and bust will devastate us again in years to come.

BOOM BUST BOOM presents an idea - if human beings are inherently irrational, as illustrated by footage from behavioural research facility Monkey Island in Puerto Rico the economic system should perhaps be adapted to protect us from our behaviour.

In order to change the economic system, we must start with education. Today, virtually no university degree syllabus will cover crashes, as the idea of a financial crisis challenges the existing economic model. As a result, graduate economists enter the workplace unable to engage with the real world. BOOM BUST BOOM suggests a simple solution, change the teaching and the new generation of economists will change the system.

“ Boom Bust Boom is a seriously comic look at why crashes happen, told by a member of Monty Python, the finest minds in economics, writers, puppets and a movie star.”

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Dan ArielyDan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. Ariely has said that he wrote the books Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality in an “attempt to take my research findings and describe them in non-academic terms so that more people will learn about this type of research, discover the excitement of behavioral economics, and possibly use some of the insights to enrich their own lives.”

Dirk BezemerDirk Bezemer holds a PhD in economics and two MSc degrees in agriculture. He was a researcher at Imperial College, London and worked in policy advice and in the UK civil service (DfID) before joining Groningen University where he is an Associate Professor. His 2009-2010 work on financial fragility and economic models was widely quoted. He contributes regularly in the Dutch press and is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences.

Zvi BodieZvi Bodie is the Norman and Adele Barron Professor of Management at Boston University and has served on the finance faculty at Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Professor Bodie has published widely on pension finance and investment strategy in leading professional journals. His textbook Financial Economics is co-authored by Nobel Prize winning economist, Robert C. Merton.

Willem H BuiterWillem H Buiter has taught at Princeton University, the University of Bristol, the London School of Economics, Yale University and Cambridge University. He was an external member of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England and Chief Economist and Special Counsellor to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has been an advisor to and consultant for, amongst others, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission.

John CassidyJohn Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995. His latest book, “How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities,” was published in November, 2009. Cassidy is also a contributor to The New York Review of Books and a financial commentator for the BBC.

JK GalbraithFrom the 1950s through the 1970s, John Kenneth Galbraith was one of the most widely read economists in the United States. Author of The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State, Galbreith was on the editorial board of Fortune, became an economics professor at Harvard and was an adviser to President John F. Kennedy. He was also president of the American Economic Association in 1972.

THE CONTRIBUTORS

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Andy HaldaneAndrew G Haldane is the Chief Economist at the Bank of England and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Statistics. In 2014, TIME magazine voted him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Andy has written extensively on domestic and international monetary and financial policy issues.

Daniel KahnemanDaniel Kahneman is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a fellow of the Center for Rationality at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has been the recipient of many awards, including the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002.

Steve KeenSteve is Associate Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney, and author of the popular book Debunking Economics. Keen was one of the handful of economists to realise that a serious economic crisis was imminent in 2008 and publicly warned of it as early as December 2005. This, and his pioneering work on modeling debt-deflation, resulted in him winning the Revere Award from the Real World Economics Review for being the economist whose work is most likely to prevent a future financial crisis.

Stephen KinsellaStephen Kinsella is a senior lecturer in economics at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick and a Research Fellow at the Geary Institute at UCD. He has written four books, is a weekly columnist for the Irish Independent and also writes a bi-weekly column for the Guardian regarding his knowledge of the Irish and European economies.

Paul KrugmanPaul Krugman is the professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and in 2008 won the Nobel economics prize for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity. He is one of the founders of the “new trade theory.” Krugman is the author or editor of 20 books, over 200 papers and is a columnist for The New York Times.

George MagnusGeorge Magnus is an independent economist, consultant, author and commentator who, until recently, held the position of Senior Economic Advisor at UBS and had previously been their Chief Economist. He is well known for his commentaries and interviews in the media, especially concerning the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

Paul MasonChannel 4 News Economics Editor Paul Mason won the Wincott Prize for Business Journalism in 2003, the Workworld Broadcaster of the Year in 2004 and the Diageo African Business Reporting Award in 2007. His report on the social movements behind Bolivian president Evo Morales was cited when Newsnight was awarded the Orwell Prize in 2007.

Perry MehrilingPerry Mehrling is a member of the Academic Council at the Institute for New Economic Thinking and has been a professor of economics at Barnard College since 1987. He has also held visiting positions at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Boston University. Mehrling received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Hyman P MinskyFinancial economist Hyman P Minsky studied at Harvard and Chicago University and was a Levy Institute distinguished scholar from 1990 until his death in 1996. Minsky taught at Carnegie Tech and Brown University, was an associate professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and professor of economics at Washington University, St Louis. Minsky rejected conventional economic ideas such as the efficient market hypothesis in favour of what he called the “financial instability hypothesis.” He was a recipient in 1996 of the Veblen-Commons Award, given by the Association for Evolutionary Economics.

Lucy PrebbleLucy Prebble wrote the critically acclaimed ENRON which transferred to the West End and Broadway in 2010 after sell out runs at both the Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre. Prebble won the award for Best New Play at the TMA Theatre Awards, and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award and Olivier Award for Best New Play. She is currently adapting ENRON for Sony Pictures.

Laurie SantosLaurie Santos runs the Comparative Cognition Laboratory (CapLab) at Yale, where she and collaborators across departments (from psychology to primatology to neurobiology) explore the evolutionary origins of the human mind by studying lemurs, capuchin monkeys and other primates. Santos and her team have taught monkeys to use a form of money and Santos’ research suggests that the source of our bad money decisions might be our monkey brains.

Robert J ShillerProfessor Shiller was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, together with Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen, “for their empirical analysis of asset prices.” Shiller is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and Professor of Finance and Fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. He has written numerous books and also has a regular column ‘Economic View’ in The New York Times.

Nathan TankusNathan Tankus is a student and research assistant at the University of Ottawa. His current research interests include the history of economic thought, economic history, financial instability and crises, the evolution of monetary systems, public and private planning, and balance of payments economics.

Sweder Van WijnbergenVan Wijnbergen has a PhD in Econometrics and a doctorate in economics from MIT. He worked as chief economist at the World Bank and then became Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Amsterdam. He advices many governments and institutions on taxation, pensions, financial reforms and privatisation .

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TERRY JONES

Terry Jones is a director, writer, actor, historian and member of Monty Python. His directorial credits include features films (Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, The Holy Grail, Personal Services, Erik The Viking), documentaries (Medieval Lives, Barbarians) and screenplays (Labyrinth, Ripping Yarns). Terry is also author of several books including Chaucer’s Knight.

THEO KOCKEN & CARDANO

Theo Kocken is a veteran economist and entrepreneur. He has 25 years of experience in the financial industry. He is professor of Risk Management at VU University Amsterdam and founder of the Anglo-Dutch risk management firm Cardano. His aim is to make financial decision making less of a gamble and more focused on stabilizing lifelong income for young people, entrepreneurs and retirees. As chairman of Cardano Development Foundation, he and his colleagues also support innovative financial insurance products such as drought insurance and currency insurance in over 50 developing countries. Education is integral to Theo’s work.

BILL AND BEN PRODUCTIONS

Bill Jones and Ben Timlett met when they were four in Camberwell, South London. In 1998 they formed Bill and Ben Productions to direct, produce and edit independent feature films, documentaries and music videos together. In 2010, both Bill and Ben received two nominations each in the best direction and best production categories of the 62nd Prime Time Emmy Awards for Monty Python Almost The Truth. Boom Bust Boom is their third feature as co-directors and co-producers. Other credits include A Liar's Autobiography starring the five remaining members of Monty Python and Absolutely Anything, produced by the pair in 2014 and starring Simon Pegg and Robin Williams.

MADE VISUAL STUDIO

Justin Weyers, creative director at Made Visual Studio, produced and directed animation, and acted as creative lead for the boombustclick initiative. With 15 years of experience working across advertising, fashion, branding and film production. The studios recent projects have been focused on collaboration, education and entertainment for the likes of National Trust, Ebay and KISS.

Made Visual Studio is focused on mentoring, creative opportunity and ownership. As animation producer on the feature film A Liar's Autobiography they brought 17 different styles of animation together from 15 international studios.

Making economics entertaining Made Visual Studio and its team have thrived in the process.

THE TEAM

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JONNY & WILLAwarded a Golden Arrow for Best New Director at the 2013 British Television Advertising Craft awards and nominated for a Children's BAFTA, Jonny Sabbagh & Will Harper are puppet filmmakers with ten years experience.

Johnny & Will's work includes TV shows, feature films, music videos and commercials. The pair direct, write scripts, perform voices, create environments, write and record music, make props, rig and puppeteer just about anything.

For Boom Bust Boom, world leaders and economists were brought to life as Johnny & Will created puppet versions of President Calvin Coolidge, J.K. Galbraith and Hyman Minsky.

MAISIE NOBLELon don-based illus tra tor Maisie Noble grad u ated from Uni ver sity of the Arts Lon don in 2013 with a first class hon ours degree in fash ion illus tra-tion. Maisie has since worked on a wide vari ety of projects from Boom Bust Boom to a monthly series of illus tra tions for fash ion pub li ca tion Volt, an ani mated project for The National Trust and pat tern and print design for shoe designer Ffion Lloyd. Maisie's work proved hugely influential to Boom Bust Boom as she rendered the world's financial history in her trademark style.

ARTHURCOXBAFTA Award winning film and animation Production Company ArthurCox is known for strong character based narratives. We are particularly respected for our Disney children’s series ‘Nina Needs to Go’, comedy such as the multi award winning ‘John and Karen’ by Matthew Walker and for the animated documentaries of George Sander-Jackson.

MOTH COLLECTIVEMoth is an award winning animation collective based in London. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2010, they began collaborating and exploring their shared love in all things drawn. Specialising in hand-drawn and 2D animation, they work on a variety of projects, from short and feature film work to commercial projects, music videos and films for charities and non-profit organisations. Their work has been screened in festivals worldwide and won numerous awards including a Bafta nomination for 'Matter Fisher'. They are Daniel Chester, David Prosser, and Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits.

THE TEAM CONTINUED

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All photography stills copyright Nick Rutter (Director of Photography)

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