The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday MachineThe #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading."—Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time. |
Contents
| 1 | |
In the Land of the Blind | 26 |
How Can a Guy Who Cant Speak English Lie? | 61 |
How to Harvest a Migrant Worker | 85 |
Accidental Capitalists | 104 |
SpiderMan at The Venetian | 136 |
The Great Treasure Hunt | 160 |
The Long Quiet | 179 |
A Death of Interest | 200 |
Two Men in a Boat | 226 |
Epilogue Everything Is Correlated | 253 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actually AIG FP analyst asked Asperger's Bear Stearns bets big Wall Street bond trader borrowers bought Burry's buyer called CDOs Charlie and Jamie Citigroup collapse Cornwall Capital created credit default swaps Deutsche Bank e-mail equity explain FICO scores financial markets financial system FrontPoint fucking go bad Goldman Sachs Greg Lippmann happened hedge fund home loans Howie Hubler idea inside interest rate investors J.P. Morgan Joe Cassano knew Lehman Brothers lenders looking losses Merrill Lynch Michael Burry Mike Burry million months Moody's Morgan Stanley mortgage bond market never options percent pool portfolio rating agencies risk Salomon Brothers sell short someone Steve Eisman stock market subprime bonds subprime loans subprime mort subprime mortgage bonds subprime mortgage loans subprime mortgage market swaps on subprime talk thing thought told tranche triple-B Vegas Vinny Wall Street firms wanted Wing Chau worth wrote