The Big Short:Inside the Doomsday Machine by Mike Lewis. No question, it's the best book of the year and probably one of the best economics book ever. It's hard to classify this book as non-fiction since every page sounds and feels like fiction and surreal (of course it helps since Mike writes economics like Catcher in Rye). Hilarious is an understatement.
Yes, the "recession" was hard on all of us but since there ain't a thing that has changed the way wall street functions, my point is why not have a good laugh reading this book.? Trust me, I don't think anyone is going to learn any lessons from this book and Mike Lewis knows it too. I admire his persistence to try to wake us up from the illusion of smooth operating/know it all economic machine. Sadly, the truth is we can wake up a person who is sleeping but its impossible to wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.
Somewhere towards the end of the book, a journalist used the word "Alchemy". I cannot find a better word to describe the tools and models used by the wall street magicians to create virtual $$ out of thin air.
And this book tops an elusive list too.
Here the conversation between one of the characters Danny and Wall Street salesman before he was helping Danny to get into a trade that seemed perfect in every way.
"I appreciate this, but I just want to know one thing. How are going to fuck me?
Heh-heh-heh, c'mon, we'd never do that, the trader started to say but Danny, though perfectly polite, was insistent.
We both know that unadulterated good things like this trade don't just happen between little hedge funds and big Wall Street firms. I'll do it, but only after you explain to me how you are going to fuck me.
And the salesman explained how was going to fuck him. And Danny did the trade."
And this is the machine basically running the whole planet. God help us.
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