What is The Big Short?
Filmed in 2015, The Big Short is a comedy-drama movie directed by Adam McKay, based on the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. This award-winning film follows the events leading up to financial crisis of 2007, and details the real-life stories of the people who made millions from the collapse of the housing market. The movie does a wonderful job of taking complex economic terms like mortgage-backed securities, subprime loans, short selling, and CDOs, and explaining them in a comprehensive and easily understandable way.
Filmed in 2015, The Big Short is a comedy-drama movie directed by Adam McKay, based on the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. This award-winning film follows the events leading up to financial crisis of 2007, and details the real-life stories of the people who made millions from the collapse of the housing market. The movie does a wonderful job of taking complex economic terms like mortgage-backed securities, subprime loans, short selling, and CDOs, and explaining them in a comprehensive and easily understandable way.
Why This Movie?
The story of the housing market collapse and ensuing economic meltdown is one of, if not the most egregious examples of business conducted unethically ever. While The Big Short focuses more on the stories of the men who shorted the mortgage securities and made millions rather than the banks and companies who were more responsible for the actual collapse, it still exposes and explains the corruption and fraud that enabled a bubble to form in the housing market and pop with such devastating consequences. From the synthetic CDOs to the colluding rating agencies, many different immoral business practices are in display over the course of the movie. My hope is that by showing this film and discussing how the market collapsed, my audience will understand the dangers of greed and the consequences of unethical business. This idea is discussed in broader terms in my capstone essay, but I believe that this movie highlights the perfect example for illustrating my point, and is an important viewing for those wishing to educate themselves more on corruption in the economy (while still being a very entertaining experience).
For an excellent article that further explains the key economic theories within The Big Short, click here.
The story of the housing market collapse and ensuing economic meltdown is one of, if not the most egregious examples of business conducted unethically ever. While The Big Short focuses more on the stories of the men who shorted the mortgage securities and made millions rather than the banks and companies who were more responsible for the actual collapse, it still exposes and explains the corruption and fraud that enabled a bubble to form in the housing market and pop with such devastating consequences. From the synthetic CDOs to the colluding rating agencies, many different immoral business practices are in display over the course of the movie. My hope is that by showing this film and discussing how the market collapsed, my audience will understand the dangers of greed and the consequences of unethical business. This idea is discussed in broader terms in my capstone essay, but I believe that this movie highlights the perfect example for illustrating my point, and is an important viewing for those wishing to educate themselves more on corruption in the economy (while still being a very entertaining experience).
For an excellent article that further explains the key economic theories within The Big Short, click here.