The Big Short

The Big Short Full Book Introduction

This book mainly tells the story of how several ordinary Wall Street workers found out the secret of the bond market, realized the crisis hidden under the "subprime" bubble, and got rich by shorting the market. The book also reveals the dark side of American financial institutions and financial rating agencies. It analyzes the various causes of the financial crisis.

Author : Michael Lewis

The author of this book is Michael Lewis. He graduated from Princeton University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He served as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers, and was also a writer for The New York Times and an editor of The Observer. His famous book, Liar's Poker, is widely regarded as a classic depiction of Wall Street culture in the 1980s. He is also the author of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, and Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood.

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today, we will unlock for you the book, The Big Short.

Speaking of the U.S. subprime crisis, we believe you are already familiar with it. The crisis began in the spring of 2006. At the time, many Americans that borrowed money to buy homes couldn't afford their bank loans. They sold their homes, and housing prices plunged, which triggered an economic crisis that engulfed the housing and financial markets. By August 2007, the crisis had influenced the financial markets of the U.S., the European Union, and Japan. It also brought unimaginable damage to the famed Wall Street. However, some saw the crisis well before the bubble burst. While everyone else was dreaming of making money, they shorted the market and made handsome profits and became one of the few people to make a fortune during a financial disaster. They performed what the book calls the "big short." So, who are they? How did they manage to see the situation clearly? That is the story of The Big Short.

The book was written by American best-selling author, Michael Lewis. His bestselling books include Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and The Big Short. Forbes chose both Liar's Poker and The New New Thing as "the 20 most influential business books of the 20th century." He is currently a contributing editor of Vanity Fair.

In The Big Short, Michael Lewis' ability to capture the ins and outs of financial trading and the way people think and behave has a lot to do with his own experience. In his early years at Wall Street’s top investment bank, Salomon Brothers, he gained deep insight into the financial industry. As soon as it was published, The Big Short became the go-to-book for people who wanted to study the financial crisis of 2008. In 2015, the book was adapted into a film that won the Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay. While the film focuses more on Wall Street’s greed, what we're going to unlock focuses more on what caused the financial crisis and how people responded to it.

Next, we will explain the core content of the book from three aspects.

Part I: What caused the U.S. subprime crisis?

Part II: The truth behind the bubble and why were people were so optimistic?

Part III: Who benefited from the financial disaster after the bubble burst?

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