It’s Oscar season, impossible to ignore with so many story angles. But here’s an opinion from Charles Mudede in the Stranger on the (very good) film “The Big Short”. As noted, the film is scary, while being rich with humour and exposition. In combining the two, to give one example, the concept of a CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) is explained in about 2 minutes by Margo Robbie, while sipping champagne in a bubble bath.
I may have been somewhat deluded by Hollywood magic into thinking that I actually understood these financial instruments, but there was no mistaking the point of the film.
The most important film in the 2016 Oscar race is The Big Short, which has five nominations, one of which is for best picture. The reason for its importance is the relevance of its subject matter—the greed, stupidity, and corruption that led to the collapse of the financial markets in 2008. All you need to do is read about the dizzying rise and fall of the Chinese stock market or the subprime-fueled bubble in auto loan securitizations in the United States to see that we have by no means made the money-mad world between 2001 and 2008 a thing of the past.
“All you need to do is read about the dizzying rise and fall of the Chinese stock market” …
… or the dizzying rise in Vancouver house prices?