Yikes. You know it really sucks that a bunch of Wall Street a-holes created mortgage backed securities and in order to continue to feed their machine, bundled riskier and riskier mortgages together, and then decided to sell portions of those bonds over and over again in a way that nearly bankrupted the company. And with their giant government bailout they turned around and gave themselves big fat bonuses in amounts greater than average Americans will see in their entire lives. So yeah, The Big Short is infuriating.But... as with anything Michael Lewis, it's so damn well written. I mean, I have an English literature degree, there's no way I should understand and be able to speak intelligently about collateralized debt obligations, but I can. So thanks Michael Lewis. This book takes a deep dive into the origin and abuses that led to the financial collapse of 2007/2008 and the following recession. It's a hard look at the people on the inside of Wall Street that care only about making money for themselves and had no qualms about what their actions might do for the rest of America. And it applauds without glorifying the individuals who figured out the system was on the brink of collapse and bet against it. Everyone was asleep at the wheel on this one and it could absolutely happen again. Which is probably the worst part. I watched the movie after reading the book and it's very well done. I don't say that often.
4.5 Stars.
I spent 33 hours listening to The Bonfire of the Vanities and three days thinking about it and I'm still not really sure what I want to say. What a big book. What an indictment on the 80s culture. What an examination of selfish agendas. And everyone in this book has an agenda.
Sherman McCoy is a Wall Street bond trader - a self proclaimed "Master of the Universe" who is so filled with conceit and superiority that he flagrantly carries on an affair with a young woman, Maria Ruskin, married to a septuagenarian of dubious income. The two liaise in a rent controlled apartment mere blocks from the home Sherman shares with his wife and child.
After picking Maria up from the airport one evening, Sherman distractedly drives past the exit for Manhattan and ends up deep in the Bronx where he promptly gets lost, freaks out about all the people of color around, and in attempting to make a hasty escape, is involved in a hit and run accident where a young man is injured.
Maria is more than happy to forget the incident ever happened, but it dogs Sherman. And rightfully so it turns out because a drunk newspaper has been is forced to write a story about the injured young man, stretching the facts to make the young man look like a high school valedictorian saint, and well a media circus and a district attorney up for reelection later....
Few of the characters in the book have redeeming qualities in the least and there is much to dislike about many of them and their motives, whether for filling their own pockets at the expense of the mob, or attempting to hold on to money power or influence - Wolf has a mastery of the minutiae which really tells you what you what you need to know about a character. Wolf's writing has a flow and a style all it's own which made this book a joy to read, even if it did get a little long in the tooth in sections.
It's too bad the movie is so universally panned, because I would have enjoyed watching it at this point.
4/5 Stars.
