The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine

Author: Michael Lewis

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General Fields

  • : $24.99 AUD
  • : 9780141043531
  • : Penguin UK
  • : Penguin Press
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  • : 0.218
  • : January 2011
  • : 198mm X 129mm X 17mm
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  • : 24.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Michael Lewis
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  • : Paperback
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  • : English
  • : 338.542
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Barcode 9780141043531
9780141043531

Description

When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine, and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking. The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar's Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely--really unlikely--heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.

Awards

Shortlisted for Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2010.

Reviews

It's time to throw another tank of petrol on the Wall Street pyre, as only Lewis can Financial Times He is so good everyone else may as well pack up Evening Standard No one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Mr. Lewis -- Michiko Kakutani New York Times Probably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written Reuters Hugely entertaining Economist Terrifying and superbly told Daily Telegraph Genius Sunday Times Compelling and horrifying -- Gq A more than worthy successor to Liar's Poker ... if you want to know about the origins of the credit crunch, and the extraordinary cast of misfits, visionaries and chancers who made money from the crash, there's no more readable account Daily Telegraph A triumph ... riveting ... a genuine page-turner Times The very best book about this whole affair -- John Lanchester, Author Of 'whoops!' If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis's The Big Short Washington Post

Author description

Michael Lewis was born in New Orleans and educated at Princeton University and the London School of Economics. He has written several books including the New York Times bestseller, Liar's Poker, widely considered the book that defined Wall Street during the 1980s. Lewis is contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and for Vanity Fair. He is married with three children.