on The Big Short

I used to feel bad when I thought of layoffs on Wall Street, no one should go wanting for work, least of all those trained for a particular trade. Then I read Michael Lewis's narrative of the financial crisis and came to a much different mindset; Wall Street attracts the ambitious and that ambition is promptly wasted. Innovation is directed at ways to better fuck over one's counterparts through convoluted and hard to understand financial vehicles. So it is my opinion that the less attractive the finance industry appears to be then the the fewer talented individuals will be lured away; which in turn leads to fewer morons (Germans in this case) being fucked over.

While I was aghast at the over all ruthlessness of the industry, Mr Lewis is more focused on how the lack of responsibility and accountability has led to a culture in which fees and personal enrichment purvey rather than loyalty and good faith in regards to ones clients. A likely outcome when the utter destruction of a clients portfolio at worst leads to an early, yet cushy, retirement from finance.

To me what is most striking about the book is the lack of mention of the authorities. This is not a testament to the reporting, on the contrary, the characters reported on in the story approached the authorities only to be rebuffed (more like stared at with confused looks). It's shocking to think that such pervasive fraud and deception went on with the authorities having little to no knowledge of it. Those with the responsibility protect the markets should never have to rely on the market players themselves to do the right thing. We should be spending vast sums of money to employ individuals to understand the markets and their potential weaknesses. The cost is a fraction of the lost productivity that occurs after a financial crisis and in my opinion is money well spent.

In closing I find it rather humorous that Martha Stewart received more jail time than any individual that was complicit in the largest financial disaster since the Great Depression. We could do better.