http://documentaryheaven.com Welcome To Documentary Heaven!! Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:18:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://documentaryheaven.com/how-the-rich-beat-the-taxman/ http://documentaryheaven.com/how-the-rich-beat-the-taxman/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:52:12 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=6346 How do the rich avoid paying tax and protect their fortunes? Dispatches reveals the clever devices they use.With more than 20 millionaires in the cabinet, reporter Antony Barnett examines the financial affairs of some ministers and others who have helped the coalition. George Osborne says ‘we’re all in this together’ but are ministers and top Tories paying the same rates of tax as the rest of us?Barnett visits a number of offshore tax havens around the world still under control of Britain, including the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, to find out more about tax avoidance ploys.... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/how-the-rich-beat-the-taxman/feed/ 2 http://documentaryheaven.com/the-people%e2%80%99s-republic-of-capitalism/ http://documentaryheaven.com/the-people%e2%80%99s-republic-of-capitalism/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:41:28 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=6282 Joined at the Hip Perhaps nothing crystallizes the theme of Ted Koppel’s excellent documentary series “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” like the production of Ethan Allen couches. Over four episodes (Last episode is missing from DocumentaryStorm), Koppel reveals increasing economic interdependence between the United States and China, and daily business for the American furniture maker is a case in point.While couch bases are made in Chinese factories using cheap labor, those bases are then sent to the U.S. to be assembled with other components. The finished couches are then sent to China to be sold to a growing middle class with money to spare. Such is the cycle of globalization, pushing the U.S. and China into a necessary partnership that has an upside for some and a profound downside for others.“The U.S. would have an easier time disentangling itself from Germany or France than from the Chinese,” says Ted Koppel. “You have to wonder how ei... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/the-people%e2%80%99s-republic-of-capitalism/feed/ 5 http://documentaryheaven.com/life-and-debt/ http://documentaryheaven.com/life-and-debt/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:02:35 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=6236 Utilizing excerpts from the award-winning non-fiction text A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, Life and Debt is a woven tapestry of sequences all focusing on the stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival and parameters of day-to-day existence are determined by the U.S. and other foreign economic agendas.By combining traditional documentary telling with a stylized narrative framework, the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade will be understood in the context of the day-to-day realities of the people whose lives they impact.The film opens with the arrival of vacationers to the island– utilizing Ms. Kincaids text as voice-over, we begin to understand the profound contrasts behind the breathtaking natural beauty of the island. The poetic urgency of Ms. Kincaids text lends a first-person understanding of the legacy of the country’s colonial past, and to it’s present day economic challenges.As we begin to under... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/life-and-debt/feed/ 6 http://documentaryheaven.com/the-midas-formula-trillion-dollar-bet/ http://documentaryheaven.com/the-midas-formula-trillion-dollar-bet/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:09:24 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=6113 The history behind perhaps the greatest formula ever created in finance: the Black-Scholes-Merton options pricing model. Two of its creators were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1997. A year later their hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) had collapsed with staggering losses of $100 billion due to significant leverage of the strategy. The Black-Scholes Formula was derived by observing that an investor can precisely replicate the payoff to a call option by buying the underlying stock and financing part of the stock purchase by borrowing. Only five variables were needed: the price of the stock; the exercise price of the option; the risk-free interest rate; and the time to maturity of the option. The only unobservable is the volatility of the underlying stock price. The main problem with the framework (which assumes the ability to use risk-free arbitrage and dynamic hedging in continuous time) is that it doesn’t consider how a change in market dynamics (specifically... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/the-midas-formula-trillion-dollar-bet/feed/ 9 http://documentaryheaven.com/who-will-save-the-euro/ http://documentaryheaven.com/who-will-save-the-euro/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:10:49 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=6074 It is not just the banks that are in danger of going under. It is entire economies. They are the ones in need of emergency cash to stay afloat. For some time we have been saying that Europe's financial 'white knight' may end up wearing Chinese armour or even a South American uniform?Now it looks like all that is starting to come true. It started with a big splash in the Financial Times, saying Italian officials had turned to China for help in avoiding a financial crisis.Counting the Cost also looks at the America's Cup, once the domain of the millionaires and billionaires. Sailing's Formula One event hits the waters of Plymouth, England, as it tries to cut costs and appeal to a younger generation.Over the years the Cup has suffered from a bit of an image crisis, struggling with too much money and too many legal battles which have pushed both fans and investors away from the event. Can the America's Cup change with the times?Also, banks are back under scrutiny. UBS, the... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/who-will-save-the-euro/feed/ 5 http://documentaryheaven.com/ten-trillion-and-counting/ http://documentaryheaven.com/ten-trillion-and-counting/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:25:47 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=6054 The journey begins as FRONTLINE correspondent Forrest Sawyer takes viewers to a secret location: the Treasury’s debt auction room, where the U.S. government sells securities backed by the “full faith and credit of the United States.” On this day, the government is auctioning $67 billion of Treasury securities. The money borrowed will be used to fund services and programs that the government cannot pay for through tax revenues alone.Observers warn that the United States’ reliance on borrowing to fund essential programs is a dangerous gamble. For the first time, investors are beginning to question the ability of federal government to meet its growing financial obligations, and fading confidence can have dire consequences. “You might have a situation where there is one day when the government says we need to sell several billion dollars of bonds, and nobody shows,” Economist reporter Greg Ip says. “No money to pay the Social Security checks, no money to give to the state... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/ten-trillion-and-counting/feed/ 21 http://documentaryheaven.com/rising-gulf/ http://documentaryheaven.com/rising-gulf/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:45:52 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=5862 This Dutch documentary examines the silent revolution that is taking place in the United Arab Emirates (and the Gulf region in general) where Bedouin tents have been replaced by luxury and indulgence. While most of the world media’s Middle East focus has been portraying the region as a source of conflict, an incredible process of modernisation is taking place in the UAE, a process rarely seen before and that could affect the entire region and possibly the entire world.... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/rising-gulf/feed/ 17 http://documentaryheaven.com/california-dreaming/ http://documentaryheaven.com/california-dreaming/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:50:56 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=5856 California is a strong brand, a land of dreams, movie stars, surfers and has a wonderful climate all year. But the state is practically bankrupt and the city of Los Angeles has no more cash. Public services are being scaled back and unemployment has been steadily increasing. But even in these dire financial times, feelings of entrepreneurship, optimism and a belief in America are stronger than ever before.This documentary focuses on five people who are undergoing a life transformation during the financial crisis. Christine and Justin are unemployed and are now inhabiting a van with their sons. Charles has recently been released from prison after 14 years. Mizuko immerses her children in virtual reality to prepare them for the future. Laura has started an urban farm after buying some cheap land. How do these pioneers who are reinventing their America see the future? ... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/california-dreaming/feed/ 6 http://documentaryheaven.com/an-inconvenient-death/ http://documentaryheaven.com/an-inconvenient-death/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 16:46:42 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=5744 For those who enjoyed the documentaries: "Capitalism: a love story" and "Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room" comes a middle class take on the economic collapse. "An Inconvenient Death" documents the death of the American working class and the catastrophic debt that is crushing American society. From the creator of "World`s Best Crap".... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/an-inconvenient-death/feed/ 26 http://documentaryheaven.com/the-world%e2%80%99s-greatest-money-maker-warren-buffett/ http://documentaryheaven.com/the-world%e2%80%99s-greatest-money-maker-warren-buffett/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 02:38:20 +0000 Danny http://documentaryheaven.com/?p=5738 Warren Buffett is the greatest investor of all time. His decisions about buying shares and companies have beaten the stock market year after year and made him the richest person in the world – thought to be worth 37 billion dollars.Yet Buffett lives modestly in his native Omaha, in America’s mid-West, and runs his 150 billion dollar business with a staff of just twenty. Evan Davis meets him to find out about his unique investment strategy and his eccentric lifestyle. Evan talks to Buffett’s family, friends and colleagues about the man they call the Sage of Omaha, and Buffett’s friend Bill Gates praises his philosophy of life.As the greed of the super-wealthy is widely criticised in the current financial crisis, Davis asks whether Warren Buffett is the acceptable face of the filthy rich.... Watch Now]]> http://documentaryheaven.com/the-world%e2%80%99s-greatest-money-maker-warren-buffett/feed/ 8