The Oscar-nominated account of 2008’s financial collapse shows us the cunning of the men who profited from the sub-prime crash. So where will today’s mavericks be placing their bets?
Last week saw news bulletins cut live from the beaches of Lesbos and the panicked trading floors of Shanghai, to jihadi massacres in Pakistan and Burkina Faso. Then, seamlessly, they would go to Davos for five minutes, to hear a calm-voiced rich person extol the virtues of the driverless car. As the world goes to hell in a handcart, the elite of policymakers and financiers remain convinced everything’s going to be all right.
With supreme irony, in the same week, Paramount released The Big Short. The movie is a wry take on the real-life story of investors who saw the crash of 2008 coming and made millions by betting on everybody else’s folly. Based on a book by former banker Michael Lewis, it illustrates not just the ingenuity of a few mavericks, but the stupidity, complacency and amorality of the financial and policy elite.
Related: The Big Short review – Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale can't save this overvalued stock
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