Michael Broukhim

Go west, young man

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I finished reading Michael Lewis’ the Big Short this weekend. It should be added to every high school student’s required summer reading list. It captures, more fluidly and accessibly than any other literature, how financial alchemists — knowingly and criminally or unknowingly and incompetently — systematically pillaged the American public over the last decade. Meanwhile, the gravy train chugs along undeterred. Here’s hoping to meaningful financial regulatory reform in 2010; a quote from the book: “Maybe the best definition of ‘investing’ is ‘gambling with odds in your favor.’ The people on the short side of the subprime mortgage market had gambled with the odds in their favor. The people on the other side—the entire financial system, essentially—had gambled with the odds against them. Up to this point, the story of the big short could not be simpler. What’s strange and complicated about it, however, is that pretty much all the important people on both sides of the gamble left the table rich.”

I finished reading Michael Lewis’ the Big Short this weekend. It should be added to every high school student’s required summer reading list. It captures, more fluidly and accessibly than any other literature, how financial alchemists — knowingly and criminally or unknowingly and incompetently — systematically pillaged the American public over the last decade. Meanwhile, the gravy train chugs along undeterred.

Here’s hoping to meaningful financial regulatory reform in 2010; a quote from the book:

“Maybe the best definition of ‘investing’ is ‘gambling with odds in your favor.’ The people on the short side of the subprime mortgage market had gambled with the odds in their favor. The people on the other side—the entire financial system, essentially—had gambled with the odds against them. Up to this point, the story of the big short could not be simpler. What’s strange and complicated about it, however, is that pretty much all the important people on both sides of the gamble left the table rich.”