How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Either the game was totally rigged, or we had gone totally f***ing crazy. The fraud was so obvious that it seemed to us it had implications for democracy. We actually got scared." (7.11)
To make things worse, mortgage bonds continue to retain their value even after the mortgages they contain start going bad. How much sense does that make? Spoiler alert: none. As Charlie notes here, this sort of fraud and injustice doesn't just affect the financial world, but it also wraps back around and impacts the country's political system.
Quote #8
"But they didn't know a thing about CDOs, or asset-back securities. We took them through our trade but I'm pretty sure they didn't understand it." (7.11)
Government regulators aren't portrayed so much as corrupt as just plain inept in The Big Short. Remember: the subprime mortgage bond market is a relatively recent phenomenon. Because of this, the SEC is woefully unprepared to oversee it, which allows the situation to balloon into a legit international disaster.
Quote #9
"You built a castle to rip people off. Not once in all these years have I come across a person inside a big Wall Street firm who was having a crisis of conscience." (10.25)
Ouch. Eisman doesn't say this part when he presents his speech to Deutsche Bank's investors, but he really wishes he did. Either way, now that the chickens are coming home to roost for the big banks, Eisman can finally expose them as the fraudsters that they are.