![the big short real life the big short real life](https://s.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/abc_thebigshort_le_151210_16x9_1600.jpg)
They really thought, Oh it’s just a subprime thing it’ll be contained. Working at my bank, I talked to some of those high level people towards the end of 2007, when the first real cracks were happening in subprime loans, but it hadn’t spread to everything else yet and the big crisis came a year later. Alan Greenspan didn’t see it, Ben Bernanke didn’t see it, and neither did the head of the Treasury-super smart people who did have their fingers on the pulse of a million different things. We had lots of quants-quantitative experts-and very smart people at the banks who presumably didn’t see it, or somehow it didn’t reach the right people. It was surprising to me that some people, portrayed by Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale and others, actually got to the bottom of some of those mortgage products-figuring out that they were being fundamentally mispriced-when so many others didn’t.
![the big short real life the big short real life](https://i.redd.it/dg403drwjp051.jpg)
What surprised you the most in the movie’s portrayal of the impending financial collapse? What he had to say was illuminating, not only because of how he related with the characters-played by Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, and others-but also because of the context he gave. (Henderson’s article is now available to read.)īefore we publish his feature, we wanted to get his opinion on The Big Short. He details his story tomorrow, the 24th, in an exclusive Nautilus feature. Bob Henderson, a physics PhD turned Wall Street trader, lost $200 million in a single month in 2008 (before ultimately recovering from the loss and making a profit), while working at a major investment bank in New York. Still, nothing can replace the insight of someone who worked in the industry during the crisis. The film, which is being released across the United States today, is based on the book by Michael Lewis, and describes how a few prescient financiers bet against the debt bubble and made millions. After watching The Big Short, I felt I had a decent grasp on the causes of the 2008 financial crisis.