Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
You remember John Paulson, the guy Michael Lewis mentions in the prologue but never again? Well, Paulson has a book written about him. The Greatest Trade Ever documents a multi-billion dollar bet Paulson made against a Goldman Sachs synthetic CDO. It makes the dudes from The Big Short seem like kids running a lemonade stand by comparison. (Source.)
Wing Chau, the CDO trader Eisman ate dinner with, finally met justice in 2015 after getting slammed with a $3 million sanction by the SEC. Your opinion of what constitutes a "snack" may vary with this one, but we find it pretty tasty. (Source.)
Since the subprime crisis, Steve Eisman has come out in support of the government's decision to keep the big banks together, saying that the real cause of the crisis was not the banks' power, but income inequality. And that issue remains...completely unresolved. Oh, yay. (Source.)
Greg Lippmann didn't want his real name to be used in the film adaptation of The Big Short, but he was reportedly pretty psyched when he found out he'd be played by Ryan Gosling. (Source.)
When asked what struck him most about film adaptation of The Big Short, Michael Lewis reported amazement at how perfectly the filmmakers recreated the principal characters' hair. That, Mr. Lewis, is a terrifying thought. (Source.)