How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The big Wall Street firms [...] pay as little as possible for raw materials (home loans) and charge as much as possible for the product (mortgage bonds). (4.43)
The Big Short basically frames Wall Street as a manufacturing business, with subprime loans representing the "materials" and subprime bonds representing the "product." There's just one problem: that's not how the financial market actually works. As usual, short-term profit gets in the way of long-term stability.
Quote #5
All by himself, Chau generated vast demand for the riskiest slices of subprime mortgage bonds, for which there had previously been essentially no demand. (6.7)
As more people enter the subprime bond market, the situation spirals further out of control. The financial world's greed has gone so unchecked that they've fully detached from reality, buying and selling worthless products for sky-high prices. You know what they say, though—what comes up must come down.
Quote #6
In one year as a CDO manager, [Wing Chau] had taken home $26 million, the haul from half a dozen lifetimes of working at New York Life. (6.12)
This really puts things into perspective, huh? As easy as it is to criticize Wing Chau for his clearly fraudulent business, we know it'd be really hard to turn down $26 million a year for doing basically nothing. We can see why it would be so tempting.