Truth really is stranger than fiction. Who better than the author of the signature bestseller Liar’s Poker to explain how the event we were ...
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Dec 13, 2011
Lorin
rated it: 
Remember that point, in recent years, when we all started to notice something strange? Houses were getting more and more expensive, interest rates were dropping more and more, and most of us knew someone who had no money, but was able to get a huge mortgage. And then there were all the stories of people buying houses with no money down and interest-only payments for three years. How exactly were these people expecting to make principal payments in three years? And why was anyone lending them mon
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4 comments
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(23 people liked it)
Sep 09, 2011
Rachel C.
rated it: 
This book made me want to vomit, then take a bath in a tub of bleach. Not because it's not well-written, but because the story is so repugnant and grotesque.
Lewis' last book "The Blind Side" told the stories of a lot of people who, when faced with impossible situations, chose to do the right thing and/or work harder. This book exclusively features people who were criminally stupid, those who were just flat-out criminals, and the scumbags who were smart enough to profit from More...
Lewis' last book "The Blind Side" told the stories of a lot of people who, when faced with impossible situations, chose to do the right thing and/or work harder. This book exclusively features people who were criminally stupid, those who were just flat-out criminals, and the scumbags who were smart enough to profit from More...
0 comments
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(9 people liked it)
Sep 18, 2010
Mike
rated it:
This book provides an interesting and enjoyable glimpse into the world of the Wall Street financiers who helped to create the recent financial crisis and the savvy few who recognized the bubble before it had burst.
As a piece of economic analysis Lewis's work has serious flaws. While he sees correctly that moral hazard was central to creating the crisis Lewis looks for the moral hazard in the wrong place: arguing, oddly, that the transformation of Wall Street firms from private partn More...
As a piece of economic analysis Lewis's work has serious flaws. While he sees correctly that moral hazard was central to creating the crisis Lewis looks for the moral hazard in the wrong place: arguing, oddly, that the transformation of Wall Street firms from private partn More...
Mar 22, 2011
Otis
rated it: 
An extremely well-written account of the 2008 financial collapse. It explained complex ideas like subprime mortgage bonds and CDO's in a clear way, and almost read like a fast paced thriller.
Essentially it seems that a bad ratings system and human greed created an economy that fostered the creation of a lot of bad debts, that eventually went bad, and caused a lot of big companies to go under (Lehman brothers, Bear Sterns), or require a bailout (Goldman Sachs, AIG). This is the real c More...
Essentially it seems that a bad ratings system and human greed created an economy that fostered the creation of a lot of bad debts, that eventually went bad, and caused a lot of big companies to go under (Lehman brothers, Bear Sterns), or require a bailout (Goldman Sachs, AIG). This is the real c More...
7 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2011
Amy
rated it:
In The Big Short, Michael Lewis outlines the causes of the housing crisis (which led to the larger Financial Crisis of 2007-2010), and tells the story of three small investment companies (basically four different investors) who saw it coming, bet against it, and made millions of dollars in the process. I really enjoyed reading about these individuals who foresaw the coming doom. Great human interest stories.
I think one of the greatest take-away learnings for me is the explanation w More...
I think one of the greatest take-away learnings for me is the explanation w More...
4 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Jan 12, 2011
Steve
rated it:
Lewis has a talent for making his readers feel smart. Absorbing his best works, you’re granted kinship with the elite. Like a trader at Salomon Brothers, you might have laughed at the chumps in the bond market; or like the wage-constrained A’s boss, you could’ve cobbled together a line-up that draws lots of walks; or like a genius of modern day football, you would’ve recognized the importance of a great left tackle in protecting your quarterback’s back. Now, with The Big Short, you’d no doubt
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2 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Dec 03, 2011
Mary
rated it:
Four years ago, I would rant to anyone who would listen about the insanity of the real estate market: who was BUYING all these places, and WHERE were they getting the money? I knew from simple math and common sense that I couldn't afford a mortgage, but I didn't understand how my conviction could put me in such a distinct minority in the general population. The most frightening thing about Lewis's book is the revelation that my situation had an exact parallel on Wall Street, where the handful of
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0 comments
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(2 people liked it)
May 19, 2010
Robert
rated it:
It was a good book, but it disappointed. I will tell you what let me down:
1. One of the reasons for the credit crash was the lenght of the easy monetary policy pursued by the FED and Greenspan after 9/11. Mr. Lewis devotes about one paragraph towards the end of the book to it and Mr. Greenspan is only mentioned three times, even though his policies were the cause of the housing bubble, my opinion.
2. I found the book repetitious. He tells the same story from three dif More...
1. One of the reasons for the credit crash was the lenght of the easy monetary policy pursued by the FED and Greenspan after 9/11. Mr. Lewis devotes about one paragraph towards the end of the book to it and Mr. Greenspan is only mentioned three times, even though his policies were the cause of the housing bubble, my opinion.
2. I found the book repetitious. He tells the same story from three dif More...
9 comments
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(13 people liked it)
May 19, 2010
Trish
rated it:
Lawd. This book took my breath away. I remember what I was doing at several critical moments described in the book and to have been so unaware makes me breathless. I learned things and feel oddly vindicated and cheated at the same time. I knew dumb people were making money with my money: vindicated. I thought some people in the government might be smart enough to realize what happened and know what to do: cheated.
Michael Lewis played two roles in writing this book about the subprime More...
Michael Lewis played two roles in writing this book about the subprime More...
3 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Jul 03, 2011
Simon
rated it:
Obviously there are no heroes on Wall Street, just different breeds of greedy pig. Nevetheless, Michael Lewis manages to put a human face on the story of the financial crisis by focusing on three groups of money managers in the US who saw through the absurdity of the subprime-mortgage-based financial structure, shorted the market, and made zillions of dollars in the process. Lewis manages to make those people interesting and just about likeable, but I'm certainly not going to celebrate their su
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Feb 19, 2012
Frances
rated it:
Every intelligent person in America needs to read this book. Actually, it should be required reading.
By telling the story of the 2008 financial meltdown through the stories of a handful of people, Lewis manages to clarify and explain exactly what happened, how it happened, and why it happened (that would be unbridled greed of Wall Street banks and hedge funds. Duh.) The most enlightening revelation to me is Lewis's take on the rating agencies (Standard & Poor's and Moody's), which he More...
By telling the story of the 2008 financial meltdown through the stories of a handful of people, Lewis manages to clarify and explain exactly what happened, how it happened, and why it happened (that would be unbridled greed of Wall Street banks and hedge funds. Duh.) The most enlightening revelation to me is Lewis's take on the rating agencies (Standard & Poor's and Moody's), which he More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
May 12, 2010
Susan
rated it:
Happy thought for the day:
At least I don't have to include a stint as an analyst for Moody's or Standard & Poor's to my list of professional shortcomings.
At least I don't have to include a stint as an analyst for Moody's or Standard & Poor's to my list of professional shortcomings.
7 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Aug 10, 2011
Had heard great things about this, but was surprised at how much I liked it. The book turned out to be a real page-turner when, given it's subject matter, I expected something much more laborious to get through. Who could have guessed that reading an account about the bond market and all its abstract financial concoctions could be so enthralling. Lewis does an amazing job at welding together a fast-paced and exciting narrative, with a very effective expository on the complicated world of mode
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Aug 06, 2011
Michael Lewis' book was simultaneously entertaining, frightening, and reassuring.
It was frightening, because the collective failure of the banks, insurance companies, and ratings agencies is something we hope will not happen again.
The "Big Short" was reassuring because it's pretty clear that common sense is all that is needed to avoid another debacle like this. Common sense has to override greed; one hopes that after this, ratings agencies will actually be forced to have total intellec More...
Feb 03, 2012
Nancy
rated it:
In college, I took a biology course that explained body systems not by how they work when healthy, but how they fail to work when corrupted by disease. It's the one science course I really enjoyed! I thought of that course when reading The Big Short. Michael Lewis examines a corrupt system through the lens of people who knew it was corrupt and decided to make a healthy killing off of it.
Mr. Lewis's book is a fascinating look at the subprime mortgage crisis written with the narrative More...
Mr. Lewis's book is a fascinating look at the subprime mortgage crisis written with the narrative More...
Jan 24, 2012
Sam
rated it:
Michael Lewis returns to Wall Street 20 years after publishing his first book "Liar's Poker" of his time as a trader, to find that the system hasn't changed and has gotten worse - that the traders now don't even understand the system. And instead of trying to understand it, they kept making bets which kept paying out until one day it didn't and the whole house of cards came crashing down in the crash of 2008.
I've got to hand it to Lewis, he does a fine job of telling the stor More...
I've got to hand it to Lewis, he does a fine job of telling the stor More...
Jan 21, 2012
Sue
rated it:
I completely loved this book but it won't be for everyone. I mean, who wants to read a book about the torturous details of the financial markets, for entertainment? But it is absolutely fascinating. I read it in a mammoth one day sitting because how else do you keep all the convoluted steps and acronyms in mind long enough to try and get a grip on what happened? It was recommended to me by a friend whose day job is medicine, but whose passion is the stock market (just like one of the real char
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Jan 18, 2012
Stacy
rated it:
I think this may be the best business book I have ever read, and it will scare the crap out of you. I told Scott that after reading it I think we should pull all our money out of our investment accounts and hide it under our mattress.
This book is about the mortgage/housing bust that lead to the financial crisis a few years ago. I know enough about finance to be dangerous. Michael Lewis does a great job of trying to make very complex financial ideas understandable, although I confe More...
This book is about the mortgage/housing bust that lead to the financial crisis a few years ago. I know enough about finance to be dangerous. Michael Lewis does a great job of trying to make very complex financial ideas understandable, although I confe More...
Jan 16, 2012
David
rated it:
You want to know what damage the deregulation of the banking and finance industry has done? Read this book. You want to laugh out loud at the stupidity and lack of judgement of otherwise intelligent and extremely successful people? Read this book. You want to understand why greed is one of the seven deadly sins? Read this book.
The story of how Wall Street deluded itself into believing that mortgage backed securities and their derivatives were actually legitimate and safe would make a More...
The story of how Wall Street deluded itself into believing that mortgage backed securities and their derivatives were actually legitimate and safe would make a More...
Jan 09, 2012
Margot
rated it:
After reading this I actually understand the basic concepts behind credit default swaps, asset-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations! Back when all the financial and economic shit hit the fan, I wouldn't have predicted that I could have comprehended the underlying investment instruments that sent the economy to hell--I just chalked it all up to greed. But now I actually have a grasp on the way that greed went so far out of proportion to reason and sense, and I'm even more angry t
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Nov 21, 2011
Avadhut
rated it:
http://avadhutrecommends.wordpress.com/p...
Summary –
The Big Short describes the unravelling of the great credit bubble burst from the perspective of 3 investment groups, which bet explicitly in favour of the Armageddon (i.e. against the entire matket), though each was a rank outsider from the gigantic fixed income market factory that churned out the trillion dollar mortgage bonds.
Review -
I read The Big Short in November 2010. By that time the carnage was a More...
Summary –
The Big Short describes the unravelling of the great credit bubble burst from the perspective of 3 investment groups, which bet explicitly in favour of the Armageddon (i.e. against the entire matket), though each was a rank outsider from the gigantic fixed income market factory that churned out the trillion dollar mortgage bonds.
Review -
I read The Big Short in November 2010. By that time the carnage was a More...
Nov 10, 2011
Dinah
rated it:
We read this for our book club. If you're not already out there marching with Occupy Wall Street, I'm thinking this will send you out out there. This is an object lesson in how the so-called 'natural' economic laws are rigged. The guys who predicted the collapse of the mortgage bond industry and bet on it, DID make money, but the guys who put together the worthless packages and sold them to our pension funds didn't lose either, and we taxpayers who are having to bail out much of the industry def
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Nov 08, 2011
Kevin
rated it:
“How do you explain to an innocent citizen of the free world the importance of a credit default swap on a double-A tranche of a subprime-backed collateralized debt obligation?” This book looked at some people that stood out for their lack of faith in some of the exotic financial instruments that led to the collapse of the financial markets in 2008. I liked the background on the different financial tools. The information on credit default swaps (CDS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO) w
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Nov 03, 2011
Alan
rated it:
No doubt I’m persuaded that large companies did a lot of stupid and illegal things, especially the investment banks and the rating companies like Moody’s, with the packaging of sub-prime mortgages but I just don’t buy the idea that Eisman and some other guys (even one who had Asperger’s, allowing him to focus on a CDS prospectus) were geniuses while the other people were morons. That is Moneyball sport-talk applied to the financial industry. It seems false to me and distracts from any insight
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Nov 03, 2011
Raghu
rated it:
Michael Lewis' approach to writing about the big 2008 financial crisis reminds me of Jon Krakauer's book 'Into Thin Air'. Krakauer showed that the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition can be written about in the form of an unputdownable thriller. Lewis takes a similar approach because the book reads like a thriller, making you look forward to reading about how the Wall Street honchos gradually blundered into the biggest credit bubble of all times and how a few visionaries bet against them to make
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Nov 03, 2011
Charles
rated it:
Michael Lewis goes in search of the winners in the 2008 financial crisis, the traders who had bet on the market collapsing, and had done well from it. He finds a handful of oddballs, outside the big Wall Street businesses, and tells the story of their sometimes shaky confidence in the common sense view that property prices couldn't keep rising and that people with no money couldn't make large mortgage payments.
In explaining how his heroes made their bets - with Credit Default Swaps - L More...
In explaining how his heroes made their bets - with Credit Default Swaps - L More...
Oct 29, 2011
Христо
rated it:
“Големият залог” на Майкъл Луис – малцината, които прозряха престъпното банково безумие
http://www.knigolandia.info/2011/01/blog...
Да си уверен, че си прав, а целият свят греши, не е никак лесно. Но точно такива герои има книгата “Големият залог. Машината на страшния съд отвътре" на Майкъл Луис. И те не се измислени – няколко души, всеки от тях със своите знания и мотиви, успяват с много труд да стигнат до прозрението, че има нещо генерално сбъркано на пазара с ипотечните к More...
http://www.knigolandia.info/2011/01/blog...
Да си уверен, че си прав, а целият свят греши, не е никак лесно. Но точно такива герои има книгата “Големият залог. Машината на страшния съд отвътре" на Майкъл Луис. И те не се измислени – няколко души, всеки от тях със своите знания и мотиви, успяват с много труд да стигнат до прозрението, че има нещо генерално сбъркано на пазара с ипотечните к More...
Oct 28, 2011
Tom
rated it:
At times this book is difficult to follow. The various complex derivatives concocted by Wall Street traders are mind-boggling. You have to keep stepping back and reminding yourself that for all the money that these people make, they produce exactly nothing of intrinsic value. Parasites comes close to describing them (though that would be a slur on tapeworms and such which are simply trying to survive).
We learn that Wall Street considers its function in the economy to let the market de More...
We learn that Wall Street considers its function in the economy to let the market de More...
Oct 27, 2011
Jane
rated it:
4 ½ stars. Engaging and entertaining story, but depressing at the end to see the government bailout to companies who should have been allowed to fail.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It’s nonfiction. It’s true stories behind three groups of investors who bet against the subprime mortgage market. It was well done and kept my interest. I was fascinated watching these groups, and it was fun seeing them “win” in the end. During the story I wa More...
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It’s nonfiction. It’s true stories behind three groups of investors who bet against the subprime mortgage market. It was well done and kept my interest. I was fascinated watching these groups, and it was fun seeing them “win” in the end. During the story I wa More...
Oct 15, 2011
Thad
rated it:
"What are the odds that people will make smart decisions about money if they don't need to ... if they can get rich making dumb decisions."
That quote from the end of this book sums up the problem with Wall Street pretty well. Everyone who had anything to do with CDO's should have been punished severely; instead it's like nothing happened at all. This book tells the story of several hedge fund managers who had the wisdom to bet against the subprime mortgage market, culminati More...
That quote from the end of this book sums up the problem with Wall Street pretty well. Everyone who had anything to do with CDO's should have been punished severely; instead it's like nothing happened at all. This book tells the story of several hedge fund managers who had the wisdom to bet against the subprime mortgage market, culminati More...
