"oh thank god, now everyone who knows Howard can rest."

I understood it that that wasn’t necessarily premeditated - more just to shut him up.

that's what I loved so much about the film, as you discover the familial ties you begin to see why he never takes it that seriously

This is later emphasized with roping in the other in law at the auction who charges a crazy vig despite that it's essentially his own daughter's money.

Loved how they did that to show how despite being family they will still bleed each other dry and just a general critique on the diamond district in general.

What I noticed throughout is that Arno never seemed to quite have the situation under control and they seemed to act totally independently. Earlier this could have been viewed as exasperation or stubborness but it also felt like it was out of his hands.

This is especially true when you see Phil making a call with the implication he was going to go after the family aka Arno's sister and nephews. Arno may not care about the schmuck that married his sister but he should care about his sister.

at the end it became revealed that Arno was more the financier rather than the boss all along and hence why Howie got messed up so much earlier when he didn't expect that to happen because Arno was powerless to stop it.

So I think at the end Phil had enough of the disrespect from Howie who thought being family made him bullet proof and then Arno totally panicked because he wasn't ready for that and Phil was just fed up and didn't like loose ends

Phil had the money, the guy called him in to pay it off and then he gets rid of it. Phil leaves but then he's locked up by that same guy just so he can watch him sweat out a game, anyone in Phil's position would do what he did, it doesn't get anymore disrespectful than that

do you think they intentionally made the parlays ridiculous, or was it ignorance?

interstellar