1
00:00:15,316 --> 00:00:22,596
Speaker 1: Pushkin way back in the spring of two thousand and eight,

2
00:00:22,716 --> 00:00:25,436
Speaker 1: after many years of ignoring Wall Street, I started paying

3
00:00:25,436 --> 00:00:29,236
Speaker 1: attention to it again. After all, these big banks began

4
00:00:29,276 --> 00:00:33,956
Speaker 1: to announce these massive trading losses. These people, Morgan Stanley

5
00:00:33,996 --> 00:00:36,796
Speaker 1: and Lehman Brothers, and Baris Stearns and Merrill Lynch, who

6
00:00:36,796 --> 00:00:38,956
Speaker 1: were meant to be the smartest in the world at

7
00:00:38,996 --> 00:00:44,996
Speaker 1: managing financial risk, suddenly looked like complete idiots. And then

8
00:00:45,036 --> 00:00:47,156
Speaker 1: one day the losses grew so large that the banks

9
00:00:47,196 --> 00:00:50,596
Speaker 1: began to fail and bring the entire financial system down

10
00:00:50,596 --> 00:00:55,116
Speaker 1: with them. My name is Michael Lewis. I wrote a

11
00:00:55,116 --> 00:00:57,916
Speaker 1: book about this time. I told the story through the

12
00:00:57,956 --> 00:01:01,116
Speaker 1: eyes of the relative handful of people who made fortunes

13
00:01:01,156 --> 00:01:04,156
Speaker 1: from the crisis. They took the other side of the

14
00:01:04,156 --> 00:01:07,116
Speaker 1: bets made by the big Wall Street banks, and those

15
00:01:07,116 --> 00:01:14,876
Speaker 1: bets paid off when the market collapsed. I called the

16
00:01:14,876 --> 00:01:18,436
Speaker 1: book The Big Short. It came out in twenty ten,

17
00:01:18,756 --> 00:01:21,916
Speaker 1: which is now fifteen years ago. Five years later it

18
00:01:21,916 --> 00:01:25,236
Speaker 1: became an Oscar winning movie. And now I've narrated the

19
00:01:25,236 --> 00:01:29,716
Speaker 1: audiobook of The Big Short for the first time. Steve

20
00:01:29,836 --> 00:01:33,396
Speaker 1: is using his fingers to speak on his behalf zero.

21
00:01:33,636 --> 00:01:39,036
Speaker 1: They said yes, asked the obviously irritated CEO. Is that

22
00:01:39,116 --> 00:01:45,036
Speaker 1: another question? No, said Eisman, It's a zero. Why am

23
00:01:45,036 --> 00:01:49,116
Speaker 1: I bringing this story back now? Well, for one, the

24
00:01:49,156 --> 00:01:52,756
Speaker 1: financial crisis of two thousand and eight has entirely reshaped

25
00:01:52,796 --> 00:01:54,956
Speaker 1: the world we live in, and I think there's a

26
00:01:54,956 --> 00:01:57,916
Speaker 1: lot more we can learn from this event. So that's

27
00:01:57,916 --> 00:01:59,556
Speaker 1: what we're going to do over the next seven weeks.

28
00:01:59,596 --> 00:02:03,676
Speaker 1: Here and Against the Rules, a companion podcast series for

29
00:02:03,756 --> 00:02:06,156
Speaker 1: The Big Short, I speak with many of the characters

30
00:02:06,156 --> 00:02:07,956
Speaker 1: that I followed back when I was writing the book,

31
00:02:09,236 --> 00:02:12,396
Speaker 1: the hedge fund manager Steve Eisman. But after the meeting,

32
00:02:12,636 --> 00:02:14,556
Speaker 1: like you know, guys, thought said, what do you think?

33
00:02:14,596 --> 00:02:17,396
Speaker 1: I said, what do I think? Somebody just told me

34
00:02:17,436 --> 00:02:19,316
Speaker 1: how to make a gazillion dollars. I'm ready to go.

35
00:02:20,556 --> 00:02:23,196
Speaker 1: I also spent some time with Eisman's posse at Front

36
00:02:23,196 --> 00:02:27,036
Speaker 1: Point Partners Vinnie, Danny, and Porter. And what do you

37
00:02:27,076 --> 00:02:28,796
Speaker 1: say to him when he says, Vinnie, what the hell's

38
00:02:28,836 --> 00:02:33,636
Speaker 1: going on? There's a problem with the housing market? Which

39
00:02:33,676 --> 00:02:36,396
Speaker 1: you don't want to say. Is I've been trying to

40
00:02:36,436 --> 00:02:40,516
Speaker 1: tell you this, but I was scared. You know, humans

41
00:02:40,516 --> 00:02:42,756
Speaker 1: are humans, will make the same mistakes all over again.

42
00:02:43,276 --> 00:02:46,716
Speaker 1: All the consequences of all those things that happened seventeen

43
00:02:46,796 --> 00:02:50,556
Speaker 1: years ago are not only still with us, potentially end

44
00:02:50,636 --> 00:02:53,716
Speaker 1: up getting a lot worse. We're also going to unpack

45
00:02:53,756 --> 00:02:57,036
Speaker 1: a bit the way the financial crisis broke politics in America.

46
00:02:57,516 --> 00:03:00,716
Speaker 1: Draw me a line between the financial crisis and Donald Trump?

47
00:03:01,636 --> 00:03:04,276
Speaker 1: Was his rise directly a result of the anger that

48
00:03:04,356 --> 00:03:09,236
Speaker 1: was generated by the financial crisis? One million percent? Do

49
00:03:09,316 --> 00:03:13,596
Speaker 1: you worry about the Fed's independence? Of course, that absolutely

50
00:03:13,596 --> 00:03:18,036
Speaker 1: can be destroyed. But I think also this is the

51
00:03:18,076 --> 00:03:22,156
Speaker 1: story of how a story gets told. If you aim

52
00:03:22,356 --> 00:03:27,276
Speaker 1: for art and you miss, you end up with comedy.

53
00:03:27,396 --> 00:03:30,156
Speaker 1: If you aim for comedy and you miss, you end

54
00:03:30,236 --> 00:03:33,476
Speaker 1: up with crap. I hope you'll join me for this

55
00:03:33,556 --> 00:03:36,356
Speaker 1: special behind the scenes series on the making and the

56
00:03:36,396 --> 00:03:40,236
Speaker 1: meaning of The Big Short. You can get your copy

57
00:03:40,276 --> 00:03:43,796
Speaker 1: of The Big Short audiobook, newly narrated by me over

58
00:03:43,836 --> 00:03:48,956
Speaker 1: at Pushkin dot FM or wherever audiobooks are sold. Then

59
00:03:48,996 --> 00:03:52,036
Speaker 1: come back here to Against the Rules. Episodes of The

60
00:03:52,036 --> 00:03:56,076
Speaker 1: Big Short Companion podcast drop weekly starting October the fourteenth.

61
00:03:56,636 --> 00:03:57,076
Speaker 1: See you then,