Review of 'The Big Short'

I was rather disappointed with this. The book was great - it explained complex things and unfamiliar institutions without being patronizing - and left me feeling better informed and more angry. The film didn't do that. Some of the illustrations were silly and annoying. Some things that were complicated weren't really explained - including CDSs, which were really the toxic time-bomb under the property finance market. From the film you wouldn't even learn what a short is.

Not helped by the fact that it's really hard to tell who is who - apart from the really florid Asperger-inflected character and the one with anger management issues, and the two jock kids, they all look similar. Not clear who is working for which institution, or about the conflicts of interest within the big banks.

On the plus side it did manage to show that finance isn't separate from the real world - we get to see the families whose houses are repossessed, and there is some talk about the impact on the 'real' economy.

One of the things that made me so angry reading the book was the way that the heroes - the big shorters - made a lot of money, but nothing bad happened to the people who so carelessly created the opportunity for them to do so. The big stupids lost their companies billions, and none of them are sleeping rough. I didn't get that from the film.

Watched via HDMI cable from laptop to TV, obtained via informal distribution network.