"The Big Short" Writer On Why The Bank Bailout Was A Mistake 

Banks don`t want government restrictions but will run to government for publich money to cover losses. Debt is socialised, profit is privatised.

Chooo! Choooooooo! Hey what's that? Its a bird? Nope, its a plane? Nope....

@ 2:19 It would have been funny if instead they chanted "burn him"

Bernie sanders 2016!

lmao thanks federal reserve

02:27 That pen chose the easy way out.

Great book by a talented guy. Really illustrates how corrupt Wall Street is. Lewis has been shedding light on that since Liars Poker.

the next short.... student loans... you're welcome

Always amazes me in my own nation. Socialism is FINE for billionaires and corporations....tax cuts, subsidies, giveaways but OH NO...for Main Street America? F em right? This guy is 100% on point. Surprised Colbert let him talk.

When the bailout came what did the banks do? They paid commissions to all of those losing brokers so they could continue making bad investments. And nobody has been punished for any fraud in this business.

Stephen: Is there something these guys are shorting that we can bet against right now? Answer: YES! Buy GME stock! The greatest short squeeze of this decade.

I was around my mid 20's when the economy nearly went belly up, I worked at a bank, to me it seemed like common sense to just let it all crumble and not let any bail out take place, the more experienced and seasoned private bankers and investment guys looked at me and laughed, my rationale wasn't so much that the big banks needed to break up, I had more faith in the ppl that the banks would crumble all on its own and it would've been prime opportunity for new ppl to rise and innovation would've created new financial institutions and more creative ways things would work. The crash would have been a nightmare, 10X worst than the depression, not by #'s but by sheer # of ppl being affected vs the depression since the population was nearly 10X bigger meaning the ppl affected in this crisis would've outnumbered the entire us population during the depression, this '08 crash, would have in fact been another depression and would have been far far worst, the politicians didn't want that on their clock, so they did everything in their power to avoid it, hence the bail out, banks were to some degree aware of this. The problem w/everything that happened is that these big banks weren't being negligent or dumb, they were being very careless and knew to some degree the gov't was incompetent enough that if they were scared enough they'd practically give a blank check to make the problem go away. That's what big bank did when they came to gov't, and when the dust somewhat settled, big banks made sure the status quo would not be affected. If the gov't just let the shit hit the fan, there's no denying the fallout would've been (In relative terms) apocalyptic, but 'til this day, I felt the recovery would've been that much quicker and stronger. If you have a diseased arm, are you going to chop it off cleanly to get it over with, or slap some neosporin hoping the inevitable will miraculously get better.

This may be the best movie for the last ten years. I was very impressed.

Im starting to lose my respect for colbert. What the fuck is he in love with Hillary for??? and what do u mean she ll break em up next time? Playing with people's lives here.. break up those fucking banks now before they do it again. Man i really wish Bernie wins. #Bernie2016 #feelthebern

Not bailing the banks out would've been morally the right thing to do, but it would have cause insane collateral damage. Of you fuck up and lose money on a bet, obviously thats your fault, so why would we bail out the banks? Well, the banks are the entities that keep our economy going. They lend the money people use to invest in stuff and buy stuff. Take that away and you have an ecnomic crisis of epic proportions. So bailing them out might not have been morally right, but overall it was the right thing to do. BUT right after the bailout we should have made sure that these banks can't do the same thing all over again: Break up the big banks, regulate Wall Street. We didn't do that. That was the mistake. I think a drunk driver is a good analogy. A drunk driver crashes. So do you rescue him from his burning vehicle and give medical aid, even though he is a fucking dumb ass for driving drunk? Yes, but right after that you prosecute him and punish him and make sure he isn't driving again or at least not driving drunk.(in real life we can't really make sure someone isn't driving drunk again. But we can make sure Wall Street isn't going nuts again by regulating them) The same is true for greece in the EU. Once greece failed the EU had to bail them out, because otherwise it would be terrible for the people in greece and and it could have a domino effect on other weak economies in the EU. But right after you bailed them out you should fix the system that led to the crash in the fist place. Neither the US nor the EU did anything to prevent these things from happening again. In the EU its just stupidity and complicated political circumstances. In the US its corruption. Wall Street can buy politicians pay them for not introducing regulations.

The whole conversation prologued up to that pen, falling, rolling and falling... The future's scaray.

That pen was having the time of its life, I'm sure. :)

The Banks are a special interest group for politicians. when was the last time the Government letf a bank to fall under? Not even in the great depression. They will bail them out again.

Obviously it was a massive mistake. Them failing was an equalizer for working class folks. But nope, we bailed them out and they gave themselves bonuses

I could listen to a lot more about banks from this guy!!

Michael Lewis is a national treasure.

You should include Michael Lewis in the title. He's done much more than just write The Big Short. I know it's relevant now but he's a celebrity in literature world.

Bernie Sander Bro, what do it next time. Do it now..

He is right look at the balance sheets. They are not that strong yet paying massive bonuses, buybacks, and dividends. Maybe they should have some equity?

The fact you have to ask that question on why government shouldn’t save a private entity is both insanely unamerican and anti-capitalists.

My sister was flipping houses in '05 and I looked at the growth over the years and said this has to be to good to be true.

the pen slowly rolling off of the desk from 2:28 is really unnerving

Thanks financial crisis for letting me buy Bank Of America at $6!

I still think the bailout money should have gone to the American people. We would have paid our mortgages, or gone shopping. Either way the banks would have ended up with the money but not as many mortgages would have gone toxic. (i bought a small, affordable house, but that is another issue ha ha)

Capitalism without bankruptcy, is like Christianity without hell. - Frank Borman

So in other words its gonna happen again. Warren Buffett said it best. We get smarter but not wiser.

So, making the bubble bigger...

The movie was entertaining, but very misleading and inaccurate, tries to blame the banks, when the problem really was the monetary policy.

Stephen Colbert is the only guy who looks like a banker but doesn't know shit about banking.

That a nation legally allowed to carry arms not raiding Wall Street and the banks never ceases to amaze me.

When you fraudulently misguide your rating system worldwide you are playing with Every persons or companies money on the planet. And Yes, taxpayers money isn't supposed to support a fraudulent system it is ment to protect us against such a way of behaviour. Ben Rickert is my Hero and rolemodel. He has been there, done that and went for a change of lifestyle. For the better. You can not call the man naive, on the contrary. Thank you Ben, from France 👒.

Well here is the reason in a nutshell why America is in the turmoil it is in.He confesses to knowingly selling bad bonds and everybody laughs and applauds him.

This makes me so sad, since 2000 America stopped being America

Michael Lewis is the man. Go read Flash Boys and Boomerang ASAP!

Help us Bernie Sanders, you are our only hope.

Bank bailout then bank executives get fat bonuses.

crazy thing is that something similar is happening again

People need to lighten up. So quick to be angry...just lurking, waiting for something, anything to be said that they might disagree with - even if they disagree just a little it's good enough to get mad. Stop watching a show because they discuss something you don't like. Stop buying a product because the commercial comes on during a show you don't like. Stop going to stores because their parent company supports a policy you don't don't like. At the same time you want to yell about freedom of speech, the free market and capitalism...blah, blah, blah. Just knock it off and live your lives. All this false outrage is a disservice to us all.

How times change! When I was starting out, the complaint against banks was you needed to prove you didn't need the money to borrow it.Then, their only way to get repaid was from the borrower. Now the Federal Government (taxpayers) gets stuck with the bill.

I disagree because it is impossible to allow such a large banks to fail, because if they fail which means your money, your retirement and everything connected to banks fails, do you even understand the catastrophic consequences of this.?

I had to watch it 3 times to understand what was happening (more or less). It was a good film.

GME

Next up, is The Big Short Squeeze, starring GameStop, DeepFuckingValue and Ryan Cohen.

If you read or watched The Big Short and you came out of that experience thinking "capitalism is fine, actually, maybe a few bugs here and there to work out, but it's alright", I think you must have gotten up afterwards feeling all shitty and dejected about how fucked the world is... and then you fell over, hit your head and forgot all about it. Or you're one of the villains of this strange little story.

This was a great film, but I felt disgusted by the end of it.

I think they needed the bail out to save millions of peoples life savings but the second they were stabilised should have been nationalised or broken up

Liquidity had to be restored to the credit market to keep the U.S. economy from a depression. However, the banks should have had a government overseer to guide them through the bailout and the next few years. It's criminal bonuses were paid to bankers who tanked the economy. After the markets were stable, the worst offenders and biggest banks should have been broken up. If something is too big to fail, it's too big to exist. Investment banks shouldnt be allowed to have regular banking functions and regular banks shouldnt be able to make risky investments. My regular bank, Wachovia, was brought down during the meltdown.

I just finished the book. It is so good !

Of course the banks should've been bailed out. Of course there should've been fucking consequences for the banks actions - regulations, firings and, jail sentences.

Fucking are you kidding me? The fact that banks have been resisting change and resorting to underhanded methods to prevent their reform is at the very heart of the problem of moral hazard which I assure you, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Bernanke and his colleagues at the Fed and the US Treasury considered gravely when they decided on bailing the banks out. The point wasn't because they had influence on the political process. The point was that they were (and still are) so central to the the financial sector and by extension the general economy that we had no choice but to "bail them out" (where the word "loan them money" is much more accurate and much less politically charged). I am sad to say I have lost my respect for you, Mr. Lewis.

"missreading"? Bullshit. They did it on purpose, lawmakers want some bazillions too.

Bailing them out wasn’t the mistake, they had to or the entire world’s economy would collapse. However, they should have broken them up instead of merging them together

Don't be sorry if you're honest.

Like the WTC in NY just before 9/11 they knew it was going to be burned down and bought the insurance policy

Why and who decided that the Govt. should back subprime bank loans ... ??? an invitation to disaster... how could the greedy banks resist that ??

Who understands this Corruption? I listen but can't understand, just sounds so fraudulant💯 How can you make a movie on that?

Stephen is not immune to the powers that be. This is the other side of the power coin.

the zombies clapping without realizing they footed the bill and became perpetual slaves while the banks laughed all the way to the... well

One of my favorite movies of all time

i' ve watched this movie 10 times already

Massive bailout happening now, trying to stop the bleeding.

1:41 - 1:53 They mention that in the end of The Big Short film.

That movie is really fucked up....because its true

We don't bail out the banks and this guy is in the bread lines today in 2022. If he's lucky. We should have nationalized them.

Bernie Saunders will break up the big BANkss!

rip the pen that fell off his desk.

So... "here we go again." Nothing changed and it goes back to this.

None of the people in the audience that are laughing, lost their homes.

He reminds me of Michael J. Fox somehow...?

a great movie - watched it a few times.

I watched the movie. I didn't check this book yet.

So, if they want to, they can bail Out Poverty !

Hilary Clinton. Enough said.

Who else noticed the pen rolling down on the table at the end?

I now demand a full write off on my mortgage.

And people reckon we have free markets

Stephen Colbert is the only guy who looks like a very educated , highly qualified guy but has the complete opposite personality in real life.

Great movie Horrible late night host

Stephen cutting people off as usual

The Big Short right now is US Dollar and the best way to short it is to own Currency Default Swap - Bitcoin. Of course the irony is most people will disagree and dismiss it, but that's exactly the point...

See the pen rolling down the table at 2:28

Michael Lewis!

And remember everyone, all the issues that allowed that to happen back in 2008 were never fixed. It can all, and most likely WILL, happen again only this time it will be ten times worse. Don't believe me? Just wait a bit. _(How long is "a bit"? We're about to find out.")_

One word…. BLACKROCK

How do I make a bet on this student loan situation?

I have to disagree here, You may or may not have a moral opinion on the state of the banks but 1)I'm pretty sure if we didn't bail out the banks, not to mention the auto industry, the recession would be a lot worse. The industries bailed out are today highly profitable employers. 2)Keep in mind that these bailouts were loans, not gifts almost all of which have been paid back in full with interest, barring a small number of bankruptcies etc, and that we've made money on them 3)Even Steve Eisman, Mark Baum in his movie/book has said that he's satisfied that the new liquidity requirements and regulations on the banks will prevent 2008 from repeating

Sure there are people shorting stocks.. Most are MSM companies.. As their revenue tanks. Tesla is one other the shorts are picking apart.. Hell I might even short oil stocks. If I knew the Federal Reserve was going to raise rates 1.5%...That would kill the banks using cheap money loaned from the Fed to drive oil stocks up, more expensive. I rather prefer President Trump make oil contracts at 35% margins. That would really knockout the speculators with an upper cut KO...

It took 7 years for unemployment to recover instead of 10 like the great depression. I could’ve fed myself for 2 years with the tax money their bailouts took from me alone.

Colbert "there must be something right now that a handful of people are shorting that the rest of us just have nobody about." Psst, I'll let you know what they are: the u.s. college/university industrial complex, and marriage. To anyone reading this you are either already in the know or need to mark these words.

If you like parodies, we did one of The Big Short... but we made it about the movie biz rather than the housing crisis - it's only 5 minutes long and it even won some awards! You can see it here: vimeo.com/155789993#t=0m29s

This movie and the vice movie made me so angry I almost had to turn it off, but goddam were they both amazing films. Christian Bale becomes who he plays.

America needs FDR style politics, I'm thinking Bernie.

scam people-->Take the tax money-->keep assets-->becoming valuble again-->doulbe profit

there were people on both sides that wanted the bailout and people on both sides that did not want it. both sides love socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. we should have done what China did which was to give money to local governments to create jobs. we should have bailed out the people not the elite. of course, the actual reason for the "Chinese economic stimulus program" was that a devastating Earthquake also happen to hit them in 2008 so they had no choice but to give their small governments money, but still... we needed to stimulate something and stimulating the common people is the best thing to do.

Nobody's talking about the precedent. Go against the US and get paid.