Great movie, a must see, imo. I'm sure I'll watch it a couple more times. It shows how corrupt the banks and the government are, and how they work in cahoots to completely screw the little guy.
Watched 'The Big Short' last night...
- Thread starter NoleSoup4U
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I'm not sure why they had to change names of Eisman and Lippman for the movie, but all in all excellent book and movie.
I'm going to have to get a copy of the book and read it. The movie was great, but you always miss something from the book.
Explanations were a little better in the book. Not sure why they had the lady in the bubblebath other than for the usual t and a today's movies seem to need.
I took it as a satirical comment of people who need that kind of thing in a movie in order to pay attention to what is going on.
Btw, that whole dinner scene with Steve Carrel's one on one was epic.
One of my favorite books. Definitely the best on the housing crisis. I was concerned it would come across as silly looking at the actors they chose, but it sounds like that didn't happen.
Not suprised to hear it felt disjointed. The book really jumps around 5 or 6 different stories. It's interesting a few movies have been made of his writing because you wouldn't think it opens itself well to that format.
Not suprised to hear it felt disjointed. The book really jumps around 5 or 6 different stories. It's interesting a few movies have been made of his writing because you wouldn't think it opens itself well to that format.
American arrogance and greed followed by greed. Completely unbelievable and yet not suprising at the same time.
I thought they handled the disjointedness pretty well. It never really felt forced and I liked the way they did the heavy explanations of jargon necessary to follow the story. As for the actors, I thought it could be silly too -- especially with Carrell -- but I think they lined up well and Carrell was great in a role that's not really his norm.
I also agree with your take on the book. It was fantastic.
If you read "The Big Short" then check out Lewis' "Flash Boys" too
Nole....when did you finally figure this out? It takes a damned movie? Folks have been singing this song for DECADES. Ever hear of Dylan Ratigan? It is the way of capitalism, as we know it in the USA.
I thought the movie did a nice job of showing the emotional/social challenge that these guys faced as they shorted the housing market. In order for them to be correct and make millions of dollars, millions of Americans needed to lose their jobs and their homes. It's a hard thing to root for.
If you liked the subject matter of The Big Short, read Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets by Frank Partnoy. It spans stories from late 80's into early 2000's covering episodes at Bankers Trust, Barrings Bank, Orange County, LTCM, into Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossing. You'll be amazed how things just repeat itself into what happened with the mortgage/financial crisis.
Nole you might like this bit from Amazon: "For example, Partnoy makes a revisionist case that credit rating agencies and federal regulators, including Alan Greenspan and Arthur Levitt, bear most of the blame."
Great book.
Nole you might like this bit from Amazon: "For example, Partnoy makes a revisionist case that credit rating agencies and federal regulators, including Alan Greenspan and Arthur Levitt, bear most of the blame."
Great book.
Thank you Thorne. I will have to look at that as well. It has been my opinion that Greenspan was the anti-christ.
This sick thing is that Greenspan once wrote articles on the benefit of the gold standard. I guess he felt it was better to be on the right hand of the Devil, than in his path.
Not to mention the challenge of being 100% convinced that they were right, even as their short plays just kept piling up bigger losses and required an endless stream of liquid capital to maintain as the game was played and played some more. While it's abundantly clear that the overall financial ends were pretty inevitable by 2007-2008, their ability to maintain those long-term bets weren't.
Agreed, very interesting. I think I've read all his finance related books and they are all worth reading.
And Boomerang which is probably my favorite.
Agree though Flash Boys is very good. High speed trading seems almost more deceitful than the Big Short subject matter yet goes under the radar.
Ratigan's "Greedy Bastards" raise many of the same points...and his beliefs and his passion got him dismissed from television. According to Ratigan, there are plenty of "banksters" out there to this day.
Why wouldn't there be? The government gives them free rein and then bails them out when they start choking themselves.
Hey...don't kill the messenger. All they (the government) would have had to do is publicly hang one of those bastards back in '08 when the shit hit the fan. These "banksters" are pretty smart men/women and they would have figured it out. And I am half serious about this hangin' one of the bastards publicly...High Noon on Wall Street......Instead no one of consequence goes to jail and "we the people" pay for their fun.
They should have started the hanging with Greenspan when he started pushing for repeal of Glass-Steagall. And they should have hung John Gutfreund, who started incorporating the wall street banks. And don't forget Slick Willie who didn't veto the bill to repeal Glass-Steagall. And lest we forget, let's not forget Eric Holder, who originally penned the memo about being too big to fail.
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I honestly believe all they would have had to do is hang one of them......The others would have gotten the message.
