The Big Short

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

“—Upton Sinclair”

Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.

“—John Maynard Keynes”

Bunny and I just saw “The Big Short [1],” based on the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine [2]. I can't say anything about the book, not having read it, but the movie was good. It was also amusing in that it broke the fourth wall [3] multiple times. Such as when they cut to someone famous, like celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain [4] or economist Richard Thaler [5] and actress/singer Selena Gomez [6], and have them explain some complicated financial term through cooking or playing black jack. Other cases of breaking the fourth wall occur when characters have just finished a scene and then explain that it really didn't happen that way.

It was amusing. And it just worked for this movie.

It's well worth seeing.

And it was also sobering to see just how crazy the housing bubble was.

=> [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/ | [2] https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393338827/conmanlaborat-20 | [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall | [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain | [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thaler | [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena_Gomez

=> Gemini Mention this post | Contact the author