Just saw The Big Short that chronicles the 2008 financial collapse through the stories of a small handful of people who realized what was happening to the U.S. economy while it was still happening — and then made vast fortunes by betting against the markets while everyone else lost billions of dollars, their homes, retirement savings and their jobs. That of course doesn’t include the businesses that caused this disaster – they and their shareholders got bailed out by the government with our taxpayer dollars.
This brilliant movie tells a chilling tale of the complex world of finance in a way that’s both clearly understandable and sad, hysterically funny and deeply distressing – all at the same time. It’s a tale about everything that’s wrong with our economy and why income inequality is bad and getting worse.
The villains in the story don’t get punished and we the people get screwed.
The movie is based on Michael Lewis’s book. Lewis is also the author of Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and The Blind Side.