Charlie Rose - Michael Lewis

[VEGASTOLLY]

Michael Lewis is great!

[dvsxavier]

The one thing, I got from the Big Short was that, the Investment Bankers were making money for every derivatives transaction made. The financial institutions should be blamed for causing the problem by their greed.

The funny thing is, those who bet against the derivatives bond market weren't able to cash in all their winnings, just a small chunk of it.

[tairanotomomori]

"The Big Short" was brilliant. I've read tons of books on the subject and he was, if my memory serves, the only author who went out of his way to point out the very basic about bond markets, the fact which is sooo very basic it might not even occur to the experts to tell laypersons. That, except for actively traded government bonds such as US Treasuries, the indivcative prices of which are easily accessible, compared to share prices, most bond prices are very dodgy and opaque. Kudos to him.

[elliottspitzer]

Check out his interview on Bloomberg - 42 minutes - the link is on the right.

[garywilsonmp]

That was a great 1 hour interview. Why do they make them so short? Must be storage.....

[gwbled]

Great writer and he tells it like it is!

[pibada2]

Lewis is a great story teller, not a real economist. Sub prime and derivatives sold by financial institutions were just a small piece of the disaster. The real blame should be on the American public and its spending culture.

[GBpueblo]

@pibada2 yes, but see a large (v large) portion of that spending is funded by debt. This debt is both public and private. Individuals are in debt, federal and state govt. are in debt. New debt is taken over to pay back old debt. I think American problems are more severe than just 'spending culture'.

[LBurnieM]

Too bad this is less than 4 minutes of an hour long interview. Great hour.