Being struck by lightning and crushed by a meteor are more likely to happen than winning the lottery. Easy to say, if someone states in a serious expression how they will win the lottery in the upcoming year or two, it would be hard not to laugh at such beliefs. The same reaction most people had with Michael Burry, a protagonist in The Big Short, beating against the most “safest and stable” market. “The Big Short” is a dark comedy based on true events with serval main characters' actions towards the financial crisis of 2007-08. In the film, these individuals discover something shocking about the American economy. Michael Burry is the manager of the hedge fund Scion Capital. In 2005, Burry discovers the housing market mortgage-backed securities are filled with risky subprime adjustable-rate loans. These mortgage bonds that were the highest possible rating and low default risk (65 percent AAA) were worthless and in 2007 they will fail. In response, Burry will “short” the bonds, meaning betting against them. Since no one ever bet against the housing market, Burry will have banks make them (they will later be called credit default swaps) to then buy them. Jared Vennett is a Deutsche Bank executive; he discovers Burry’s credit default swaps. Vennett agrees with …show more content…
Moreover, throughout the whole film banks were surprised yet agreed to negotiate with these individuals, perceiving them as fools. For example, Michael Burry meets with Goldman Sachs at the beginning of the film to discuss swaps on mortgage bonds. The banker's reaction to Burry's offer was, “This is Wall Street Dr. Burry. If you offer us free money, we are going to take it.” This interaction alone shows the greediness of the banks. After negotiating with numerous banks, no one questioned if Burry was right. Even more, once in securing the deal, bankers partied like