Review of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

I was intrigued by the premise of the book, which recounts the real estate market crash.  Lewis gives insight to the Wall Street forces that created the crash.  There are some very interesting characters that we follow who were the few who recognized what was happening, and ended up profiting from the crash because they bet it would happen (as opposed to the Wall Street firms who were (unknowingly?) creating the problem and betting against a crash).  The characters (who are real people, since this is nonfiction) and the general premise I think are what carry this story.  However, Lewis delves into many detailed explanations about the numbers--bonds, stocks, CDOs, mezzanines, alt-A's, short, triple-A rating, basis points, spread, credit default swaps, subprime, long, etc.   Even now most of this detail is lost to me, and I think largely unnecessary to the meat of the story.  At one point Lewis explains that this world was so complex and convoluted that even the people who were creating and selling the credit default swaps didn't understand what they were doing, let alone the Wall Street CEOs.  And knowing that would have been enough for me; perhaps Lewis felt that the reader wouldn't believe this without seeing all the nuances and details, but for me the real story was the push and pull of the (idiosyncratic) characters as they tried to make sense of all of the Wall Street craziness.  I think giving the 50000 foot view of the numbers, but following the characters would have yielded an excellent story that didn't leave me as bored.

The other part about the details makes the end very frustrating to me.  In the end of the book the government steps in and bails out the big Wall Street firms, without even really understanding what had happened and who was culpable.  Yet, in this book Lewis seems able to lay out everything that happened and the reasons for it, which should make it clear to any reader--and especially the U.S. government--that the unregulated actions of Wall Street is what was at fault for causing a national disaster and ruining the credit--and more importantly, the lives--of millions of Americans.  But was Wall Street held accountable?  Not in the book, and still not to this day in April of 2016.  Perhaps with this explanation, Lewis was hoping to educate government officials, or incite action by citizens.  But if Lewis was hoping to enact change with this book, it has not yet come.