Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Big Short

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis 2010, Reviewed as a Book on CD

What a great title to be held captive with on a recent road trip!

This book might be called required reading for anyone with an eye on the stock market and a desire to understand causes and effects of the Great Recession of 2008. The author, Lewis, is very “hot” right now, with a past and current portfolio of books on various financial events and topics. In this book, he explains how the financial industry obscured credit risk by packaging and repackaging low-quality subprime mortgages into complicated securities that would receive secure, high credit ratings. Included are the main players and banks, and sadly it leaves you believing there are few honorable players in the industry. The audio version contained a bonus interview with the author on the aftermath of the collapse. I’m now looking forward to reading the author’s next book, Boomerang, a travelogue about the European debt crisis.