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Full disclosure, I’m an economics and political junkie and a recovering Stock Broker, just so you know. This movie is about the housing bubble and crash of 2008. The director does a good job of explaining SOME of the things that happened, no mention of the ultimate causes of the bubble and crash which were all political and not generated by banks but walking in midway in the plot line, so to speak. The directore tells his story through four sets of investors who saw the collapse coming and were in a position to ‘short’ the market through credit swaps, an esoteric type of option. It gets preachy toward the end as the directory is obviously philosophically a democrat and wants desperately to blame the whole thing on big business or banks or the system or something other than a more or less rational response to an impossible political situation. Of course the bonds only worth what the underlying mortages were worth (that is to say next to nothing) and he does explain the bubble wonderfully well. Of course the banks / mortgage brokers tried to unload this junk they were forced to write by Barney Frank et al, who wouldn’t? These few were by no means the only ones to the crisis coming but they were among the very few to figure out how to profit from it. Does that make them heroes? Well maybe, in a way, sort of, I guess. In the end no one really blamed ‘immigrants and poor people’ as repeatedly stated in the movie, how could they? And the part about almost ‘no one went to jail’ is true but why would they? This behavior, the writing of the original mortgages that caused the bubble and collapse was not only legal it was actually mandated by law. This is a movie ultimately without real heroes and not much really in the way of villains either, just pathos and black humor. All in all a movie well worth seeing and a good intro to the book of the same name. Read full review
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If you do NOT understand what caused the 2007/2008 Financial Crash, then you need to get & watch this movie. The cause the Republican Right & Fox News are selling is NOT the reality of the real cause. I'm a stock market player and took a course on Derivatives which was a real I opener even before the Financial Crash. This movie does a great job of providing the details of you Derivatives & Swaps caused the 2007/2008. What it really unreal is that our Legislatures particularly the Republican Right haven't allowed the SEC to regulate Derivatives. It's like they want it to happen again & again & again. There are other documentaries available in DVD format that give a time table of events leading to the cause of the 2007/2008 Financial Crash: Inside Job Too Big To Fail In books & audio there's Free Fall by Joseph E. Stiglitz that does an excellent job of explaining the cause of the 2007/2008 Financial Crash. Read full review
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An excellent expose of the perils inherent in capitalism and how very little power common citizens have when it inevitably runs our society. As illustrated in The Big Short, under capitalism, the role of the state is first and foremost to secure the interests of private capital. Never was this so evident as President Obama's refusal, despite an ocean of evidence, to prosecute any of the perpetrators. Kudos to these movie makers for their courageous and accurate depiction! Paul Leuenberger
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Movie suggested by a relative who swore I would love it. It was disturbing, hit close to home because I lost mine in the same mortgage scamming. Sure, great subject, story needed to be told, great acting and believable characters, but if you're ordering it for the entertainment value, pass it up because you'll feel like you got beat up after watching it.
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The director makes the film understandable and entertaining. The Big Short is a fun semi documentary about real people who discovered the bank fraud perpetrated against the American people when the 2008 Ponzi scheme collapsed the financial system that caused the recession causing millions of Americans to lose their homes and jobs and the US government to take taxpayer money to keep the crooked bankers from losing money themselves. I didn't give it 5 stars because the disc needed to be cleaned before it would play without freezing on a single frame.
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