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The Big Short: by Michael Lewis
Warning : This is an independent addition to The Big Short , meant to enhance your experience of the original book. If you have not yet bought the original copy, make sure to purchase it before buying this unofficial summary from aBookaDay .
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OVERVIEW
This review of The Big Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis provides a chapter by chapter detailed summary followed by an analysis and critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the book.
The main theme explored in the book is how corruption and greed in Wall Street caused the crash of the subprime mortgage market in 2008. Despite being completely preventable, the big firms in Wall Street chose to ignore the oncoming fall in favor of making money. Michael Lewis introduces characters—men outside of the Wall Street machine—who foresaw the crisis and, through several different techniques, were able to predict how and when the market would fall. Lewis portrays these men—Steve Eisman, Mike Burry, Charlie Ledley, and Jamie Mai—as the underdogs, who were able to understand and act upon the obvious weaknesses in the subprime market. Lewis’s overall point is to demonstrate how the Wall Street firms were manipulating the market. They used loans to cash in on the desperation of middle-to-lower class Americans, and then ultimately relied on the government to bail them out when the loans were defaulted.
Using anecdotes and interviews from the men who were involved first-hand, the author makes the case that Wall Street, and how they conducted business in regards to the subprime mortgage market, is truly corrupt beyond repair, and the men he profiles in this novel were trying to make the best out of a bad situation. By having the words from the sources themselves, this demonstrates Lewis’s search for the truth behind what actually happened. Ultimately, we as an audience can not be sure if the intentions of these underdogs were truly good, but Lewis does an admirable job presenting as many sides to the story as possible.
The central thesis of the work is that the subprime mortgage crisis was caused by Wall Street firms pushing fraudulent loans upon middle-to-lower class Americans that they would essentially not be able to afford. Several people outside of Wall Street were able to predict a crash in the market when these loans would be defaulted on, and bought insurance to bet against the market (essentially, buying short). Over a time period from roughly 2005-2008, the market crashed and huge banks and firms lost billions of dollars, filed for bankruptcy, or were bailed out by the government. These men, the characters of Lewis’s novel, were able to bet against the loans and made huge amounts of money, but it was not quite an easy journey.
Michael Lewis is a non-fiction author and financial journalist. He has written several novels—notably Liar’s Poker in 1989, Moneyball in 2003, and The Blind Side in 2006. Born in New Orleans, he attended Princeton University, receiving a BA degree in Art History. After attending London School of Economics and receiving his masters there, he was hired by Salomon Brothers where he experienced much about what he wrote about in Liar’s Poker. He is currently married, with three children and lives in Berkeley, California.
SUMMARY
POLTERGEIST
Michael Lewis begins his tale of the remarkable—and strange—men who predicted the immense fall of the housing market by immediately exposing himself as the exact opposite type of person from them. He explains to the reader that he has no background in accounting, business, or money managing. Any success he has had with his previous book Liar’s Poker, an account of his time working at Salomon Brothers in 1985, has been luck. That book had primarily been about the bond market and how that company, among many others
Available on PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device.
© 2015 All Rights
SPECIAL OFFER
$2.99 (Regularly $3.99)
OVERVIEW
This review of The Big Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis provides a chapter by chapter detailed summary followed by an analysis and critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the book.
The main theme explored in the book is how corruption and greed in Wall Street caused the crash of the subprime mortgage market in 2008. Despite being completely preventable, the big firms in Wall Street chose to ignore the oncoming fall in favor of making money. Michael Lewis introduces characters—men outside of the Wall Street machine—who foresaw the crisis and, through several different techniques, were able to predict how and when the market would fall. Lewis portrays these men—Steve Eisman, Mike Burry, Charlie Ledley, and Jamie Mai—as the underdogs, who were able to understand and act upon the obvious weaknesses in the subprime market. Lewis’s overall point is to demonstrate how the Wall Street firms were manipulating the market. They used loans to cash in on the desperation of middle-to-lower class Americans, and then ultimately relied on the government to bail them out when the loans were defaulted.
Using anecdotes and interviews from the men who were involved first-hand, the author makes the case that Wall Street, and how they conducted business in regards to the subprime mortgage market, is truly corrupt beyond repair, and the men he profiles in this novel were trying to make the best out of a bad situation. By having the words from the sources themselves, this demonstrates Lewis’s search for the truth behind what actually happened. Ultimately, we as an audience can not be sure if the intentions of these underdogs were truly good, but Lewis does an admirable job presenting as many sides to the story as possible.
The central thesis of the work is that the subprime mortgage crisis was caused by Wall Street firms pushing fraudulent loans upon middle-to-lower class Americans that they would essentially not be able to afford. Several people outside of Wall Street were able to predict a crash in the market when these loans would be defaulted on, and bought insurance to bet against the market (essentially, buying short). Over a time period from roughly 2005-2008, the market crashed and huge banks and firms lost billions of dollars, filed for bankruptcy, or were bailed out by the government. These men, the characters of Lewis’s novel, were able to bet against the loans and made huge amounts of money, but it was not quite an easy journey.
Michael Lewis is a non-fiction author and financial journalist. He has written several novels—notably Liar’s Poker in 1989, Moneyball in 2003, and The Blind Side in 2006. Born in New Orleans, he attended Princeton University, receiving a BA degree in Art History. After attending London School of Economics and receiving his masters there, he was hired by Salomon Brothers where he experienced much about what he wrote about in Liar’s Poker. He is currently married, with three children and lives in Berkeley, California.
SUMMARY
POLTERGEIST
Michael Lewis begins his tale of the remarkable—and strange—men who predicted the immense fall of the housing market by immediately exposing himself as the exact opposite type of person from them. He explains to the reader that he has no background in accounting, business, or money managing. Any success he has had with his previous book Liar’s Poker, an account of his time working at Salomon Brothers in 1985, has been luck. That book had primarily been about the bond market and how that company, among many others
Available on PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device.
© 2015 All Rights
44 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 26, 2016
70 people are currently reading
859 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 20, 2022
Explains in layman’s language how greedy banking executives and their naive stooges from JP Morgan, Washington Mutual, and others took the American dream of homeownership and turned it into a trillion dollar fraud.
June 30, 2023
WOW this is information heavy. I had to skim an alarming amount of it so that I could keep a good reading pace and stay locked into it. I feel like if you enjoy and understand stocks and the logistics behind it, you'll enjoy this book. I feel like it'll be easier for me to understand what happened after I watch the movie, but this just isn't the book for me honestly. I didn't like the setup of the writing style or the pacing or just how much jargon was actually in it.
I would've DNF'd it, but it was from one of my book clubs, so I wanted to see it through and see if it got any better for me. I think it was interesting, I just don't have any actual interest in stocks and can't really retain the information well because of it.
I would've DNF'd it, but it was from one of my book clubs, so I wanted to see it through and see if it got any better for me. I think it was interesting, I just don't have any actual interest in stocks and can't really retain the information well because of it.
August 19, 2020
While I knew nothing of the collapse of the housing market in 2008 and this book gives an amazing accounting of the individuals and companies and reason for it, I hated this book. I hated the foul language (even if true to the people). I hated how boring and dry it was. It was so so so repetitive. I didn't care for any of the individuals and it just didn't have a strong story telling aspect to it. It was a dry non-fiction. Only read it as it was part of Family Finance Mom's Instagram book club.
June 14, 2023
First listen on Libby. Always love how Michael Lewis tells a story by getting you to love his characters. I read Liar’s Poker earlier this year so this was a great follow up. He communicates well how complicated the financial world is and how small things can become problematic quickly without people noticing.
July 6, 2020
I couldn't really get into this book, it was well written, although difficult to understand the language and themes.
October 22, 2020
factual and fun
February 12, 2022
A must read.
September 29, 2022
Oops! Meant to review the original book
January 7, 2023
Great writing on a crazy subject. Kept me in interested in the madness that was happening
January 22, 2023
A must reed book if you’re interested in economics and make sense of the financial markets darkest secrets. How such an big economy can be erased by greed
December 29, 2023
ngl idk why i finished this
July 25, 2024
Didn’t understand half the terms but Michael Lewis could tell an engaging story about any topic and I would enthusiastically read it.
November 23, 2024
A great story but too focused on finance jargon. It’s hard to follow if you’re not into the world of Wall Street.
October 23, 2025
Good book. Better movie .
November 3, 2025
Mostly over my head, but not enough to confirm the rich get richer and to hell with the rest of us.
November 6, 2025
A really interesting look at what actually happened leading up to the market crash in 2008 and just in general about how Wall Street works
April 24, 2016
This could serve as the CliffsNote for The Big Short. It takes you by the hand and leads you safely through the many players and entities you will encounter in The Big Short. It will give you the gist of the book if don't actually read it and will make the experience more satisfying if you do.
November 8, 2021
Saw the film, experienced the events, read this to understand (a small part) of why the world went crazy with mortgages.
It's not technical to read, explains aspects of the greed /desires of people.
It's not technical to read, explains aspects of the greed /desires of people.
May 22, 2017
Incredible look at the housing market 2003-2008. hindsight is 20/20 but a powerful reminder of the power of greed.
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March 7, 2018Literatuur: The big short door Michael Lewis
In het boek dat ik gelezen heb, wordt een belangrijke economie besproken, namelijk de Amerikaanse economie. Ik heb dit boek gekozen, omdat ik de economische marktwerking zeer interessant vind. Dit vooral met het oog op de toekomst. Als ik ben afgestudeerd, wil ik graag als zelfstandige beginnen en dan moet je toch al wat kennis verworven hebben om verder te kunnen. Tijdens mijn vrije tijd probeer ik hierover bij te leren en ook ben ik bezig met het opvolgen van sommige aandelenkoersen en beleggingen.
Nu zijn we aangekomen bij de volgende topic, de les die ik getrokken heb uit het verhaal. In het boek gaat het over de Amerikaanse financiële crisis. Bij het instorten van de huizenmarkt hebben enkele mensen van Wall Street erop geanticipeerd zonder dat ze noch Wall Street noch de banken achter zich hadden. Ik heb er vooral uit geleerd dat je goed moet weten wanneer er slechte perioden aankomen om vervolgens correct te handelen. Je kan dan de juiste maatregelen, zoals bv. je aandelen verkopen als er een beurscrash staat aan te komen, nemen om de schade zoveel mogelijk te beperken.
Het verhaal sluit natuurlijk aan bij het vak Economie, maar dit vak ligt niet binnen mijn lessenpakket dus kan ik ook geen verband leggen met de lessen en dit boek. Wel sluit het verhaal ook aan bij de lessen geschiedenis over het economisch liberalisme. Je kan wel zeggen dat dit verhaal niet mogelijk was geweest indien de grondleggers van het economisch liberalisme er niet waren geweest. Het lezen van het verhaal bevestigd alleen maar mijn visie hierover. Ik vind vooral dat de invloed van de staat , wat ook beschreven is in het economisch liberalisme , geen positief effect heeft op de economie. Ook is in de lessen kapitalisme aan bod gekomen, wat in dit verhaal zeker ook te vinden is.
In het boek dat ik gelezen heb, wordt een belangrijke economie besproken, namelijk de Amerikaanse economie. Ik heb dit boek gekozen, omdat ik de economische marktwerking zeer interessant vind. Dit vooral met het oog op de toekomst. Als ik ben afgestudeerd, wil ik graag als zelfstandige beginnen en dan moet je toch al wat kennis verworven hebben om verder te kunnen. Tijdens mijn vrije tijd probeer ik hierover bij te leren en ook ben ik bezig met het opvolgen van sommige aandelenkoersen en beleggingen.
Nu zijn we aangekomen bij de volgende topic, de les die ik getrokken heb uit het verhaal. In het boek gaat het over de Amerikaanse financiële crisis. Bij het instorten van de huizenmarkt hebben enkele mensen van Wall Street erop geanticipeerd zonder dat ze noch Wall Street noch de banken achter zich hadden. Ik heb er vooral uit geleerd dat je goed moet weten wanneer er slechte perioden aankomen om vervolgens correct te handelen. Je kan dan de juiste maatregelen, zoals bv. je aandelen verkopen als er een beurscrash staat aan te komen, nemen om de schade zoveel mogelijk te beperken.
Het verhaal sluit natuurlijk aan bij het vak Economie, maar dit vak ligt niet binnen mijn lessenpakket dus kan ik ook geen verband leggen met de lessen en dit boek. Wel sluit het verhaal ook aan bij de lessen geschiedenis over het economisch liberalisme. Je kan wel zeggen dat dit verhaal niet mogelijk was geweest indien de grondleggers van het economisch liberalisme er niet waren geweest. Het lezen van het verhaal bevestigd alleen maar mijn visie hierover. Ik vind vooral dat de invloed van de staat , wat ook beschreven is in het economisch liberalisme , geen positief effect heeft op de economie. Ook is in de lessen kapitalisme aan bod gekomen, wat in dit verhaal zeker ook te vinden is.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews