The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

by Michael Lewis

“From the point of view of the history of the universe, Max’s death was not a big deal,” said Eisman. “It was just my big deal.”

“Involuntary prepayment” sounds better than “default.”

How do you make poor people feel wealthy when wages are stagnant? You give them cheap loans.

they avoided free checking because it was really a tax on poor people

The CDO was, in effect, a credit laundering service for the residents of Lower Middle Class America. For Wall Street it was a machine that turned lead into gold.

As a rule, any loan that had been turned into an acronym or abbreviation could more clearly be called a “subprime loan,” but the bond market didn’t want to be clear.

it became clear to me that this entire huge industry was just trusting in the ratings,” Eisman said. “Everyone believed in the ratings, so they didn’t have to think about it.”