New book I just ordered: Michael Lewis: Big Short
I just ordered "Big Short," by Michael Lewis. I watched his 60 Minutes appearance and still wasn't sure if I would buy the book although it was a horrifying tale to be sure.
Felix Salmon convinced me otherwise in his review:
Amazingly, despite the fact that the book is so one-sided, it also functions as a peerless guide to exactly what went so very wrong in the credit markets generally, and the mortgage markets in particular, over the course of the last decade. It's not easy to explain synthetic subprime-backed collateralized debt obligations, but Lewis does an excellent job on both the micro level -- what these thing are, and how they worked -- and the macro level -- how the market in such exotica helped to destabilize the entire financial system.
Most impressively, Lewis has backed up his story with an enormous amount of old-fashioned reporting, spending a lot of time with the characters in his book and their families, as well as getting the important complex financial details correct. (Not everybody will understand the grittiest of the details, of course: that's inevitable. But everybody will be gripped by the book's narrative, all the same.) The Portfolio story on which this book is based was a great tale which was sometimes a bit fuzzy on the finance; the book is an even greater tale with the facts nailed down.
The result is that rarest of beasts in a world drowning in financial-crisis books: a new book which actually breaks news.
--
There's lots more where that came from: this is an assiduously-reported and beautifully-written book. There aren't many reasons to be happy about the global financial crisis, but here's one: that it brought Michael Lewis back to his roots, to produce what is probably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written.
Felix adds much more to his review here. He's really an excellent resource of information. I'm not an economist and too many people on line act as if they are, but I'm doing my research and learning.
You can grab a copy here or any place else that you like. Michael Lewis sat down to discuss with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last night, you can see the interview here:
was horrified at the laxness with which Wall Street treated the economy and the American people's investments. Then I saw him on The Daily Show and was sold. I ordered the book from Amazon yesterday. Michael Moore also delves a bit into the Wall Street phenomenon in "Capitalism, A Love Story", but this guy has got it locked. The American investor is a big chump--bamboozled by the Wall Street Banksters who became rich as Croesus while screwing the pooch for the rest of us. Thanks, Michael Lewis, for shedding some light on this for us ordinary people in the trenches.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Just remember that the "sub-prime loan debacle" is a symptom of Greenspan and Burnbanke keeping interest rates too low for too long.
(It doesn't excuse banks for doing it)
but when the fed makes practically free money...banks will (and did) resort to any means necessary to "stay competitive"
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
why hasn't anyone gone to jail for the financial crimes yet? If there was a massive bailout it follows that something went wrong and now it's two years past the crisis date but yet there hasn't been a public investigation on the scales of the Pecora Commission. I can read thousand such books yet if no one is punished then it might as well be a Dan Brown novel for all it's worth.
Pyramid King who turned himself in, the only financial criminal nailed seems to be Martha Insider Stewart.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for possession of pot than for screwing over the American public with a financial scheme. The only reason Bernie Madoff is in jail is because the people he screwed are big important wealthy people. When it's you and me, hell, the Capitalistic society that is America just shrugs and says, "investing is a gamble. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose." And I'll read the book because I'm a bookaholic and always enjoy a good read.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
than St. Sarah.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for president.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
real truth come pouring out of his mouth. I think I'm in love!
It’s one of those life lessons; and it surprised me, but it is true, for a lot of people if they tell a lie often enough they do come to believe it themselves. To see the lie would makes them less then they have claimed to be; this may be in most of us to some degree. Then there the people that will lie when the truth would do just as good, and they are just plain aggravating.
AFTER I've read it. My local library has a lot of Glen Greenwald, Michale Moore, Dave Niewert, and other liberal books. Librarians actually seem happy when I hand them over.
get it in Kindle form, since I'm moving in the next few months and I won't be buying any physical copy books until I'm settled.
I like KWillow's idea though, so if I have to wait to be able to buy a hard copy I'll probably donate it too.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
These people worked on Wall Street to make money; they had no moral compass guiding them and no laws enforcers stopping them; the bank vault was open with no guard even to watch. It the regulator that should be doing 20 years, but wait they are still in charge. The FBI needs to arrest some regulators for bank embezzlement; 20 year in Marion would be a good determent.
Do not lose sight of the vast act of class warfare that was perpetrated by the Bailout Masters courtesy of Paulson the Plunderer and OK'd by Obama the supposed opposition candidate and alleged change master.
We the peons have been plundered and the plunderers are back to their old ways:
here
here
here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
that demand accountability, either from FBI, military, Executive Branch OR SEC & pals.
I agree.
GI Joe says knowing is half the battle. Just don't forget the other half. Battles tend to be lost in the last half.
I love books!
They become indispensable after you set your TV in the dumpster.
I want my opinion and consent to be manufactured by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Oscar Wilde and Noam Chomsky, than prime time television broadcasts.
Because a bunch of snivel-snots are mad that there isn't a "Kindle" version of the book. So the Idiots are giving the book 1 star.
Disgusting, childish behavior.
to find that a book I want to read isn't in Kindle format (such as this one) especially right now that I'm not buying hard copy books, but I always click the "I want to read this on Kindle" link that the hard copy purchase info has on Amazon so that they tell the publisher.
Some of these spoiled brats give Kindle books 1 star for costing 9.99 or more, so sadly I'm not surprised.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
at least according to the cover
New book I just ordered:
http://www.wjff.pl/galeria/2008/film/125.jpg
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I have been reading this guys stuff for years. Insightful, humorous, and he shows the downright stupidity of all those Ivy League MBA's who are so smart, they can't control the monsters they create.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
He did a stint on Charlie Rose tonight. In a conversational mode, Lewis is so easy to listen to. This book should be required reading for the Senate Finance and Banking Committee.
How about Lewis and Elizabeth Warren going on tour in the heartland of America to tell it like it is?
The person who defines Reality wins.
One of the fifteen guys who outsmarted these assholes at Goldman-Sachs and AIG has Aspergers! That's right, he's autistic. I wish more of these people who are talking about this would stress that this is not a zero sum game. The money didn't disappear. It just changed hands. A few people, about fifteen according to Lewis, got fabulously wealthy. And they fucking near brought down our economy in the process. And, according to Lewis, it can happen again.
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