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Publisher's Summary

The long-awaited follow-up to the global best-seller Liar's Poker, The Big Short tells a story of spectacular, epic folly.
It has taken the world's greatest financial meltdown to bring Michael Lewis back to the subject that made him famous. His international best seller Liar's Poker exposed the greed and carnage of the City and Wall Street in the 1980s; he wrote it as a cautionary tale, but people seem to have read it as a how-to guide. Now, he wants to settle accounts. In this visceral tour to the heart of the money-making machine, Michael Lewis traces the origins of the crisis and introduces us to a new cast of compulsively fascinating characters. We meet the people who saw it coming, the people who were asleep at the wheel, and others who were actively driving us all off the cliff. Where did it all start? How could we have all been so deluded for quite so long? Did it really have to be this way? And who the hell can we blame? Michael Lewis has the answers.
No one is better qualified to reveal the dark truths about how our world really works. No one else could make it such an enjoyable ride along the way.
This edition includes a prologue read by the author, plus an exclusive author interview.
©2010 Michael Lewis (P)2010 Penguin Books Ltd
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Critic Reviews

"Lewis is the finest storyteller of our generation." (Malcolm Gladwell)
"The funniest book about Wall Street I have ever read" (Tom Wolfe)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By Anonymous User on 09-20-17

Flabbergasted

Narration is good. Story is interesting and shocking. Provides an insight into financial crisis which is a little sickening. You will not be a fan of wall street after this.

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4 out of 5 stars
By Luke on 09-09-16

Fascinating and boring

This story is incredible. I watched the film and thoroughly enjoyed the story, and so I wanted to get into more of the detail. However, it's a seriously detailed read and not so easy to follow the technical aspects. But enjoyable none the less -- especially having the characters from the film in my imagination.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By Olivier on 01-23-13

Sub-Primes for Dummies

Anyone who wants to understand the roots of the sub-prime crisis, which has plunged the world in recession for the past 5 years, should definitely get this book. Michael Lewis explains in easily comprehensible terms the concepts and reasons behind the splitting of mortgage loans into various floors and how this dissociation of the loans from the assets led to ever more abstract constructions which finally sent the world into chaos in the summer of 2008. A must read if you want to know why, and how, we got into the mess we are in nowadays.

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6 of 7 people found this review helpful

4 out of 5 stars
By Joe on 10-16-11

Complex but enjoyable

If you can get your head around complex wall street 'financial speak' such as synthetic CDO's and credit default swaps then this book is a revelation. Or at least it was for me; I thought the banks had been irresponsible now I know they are downright corrupt. The great irony is that they made these complex financial models to hide the risk but the models became so complex that they didn't understand them themselves.

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9 of 11 people found this review helpful

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By Craig Newns-Smith on 10-26-17

Hard to fathom it's based on a true story

Fascinating, enthralling, deeply concerning and eye-opening all at once. A story that beggars belief as it's set in an industry that many of us are aware of yet know so little about. The level of detail and explanation of financial products was spot on. Enough to raise and maintain interest yet not be so convoluted that it all became too hard to understand.
Have lessons actually been learnt from this crisis or are we on track to experience yet another version of this story? Only time will tell I guess and if it does, I'll be sure to listen to The Big Short 2

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1 out of 5 stars
By Amazon Customer on 07-09-17

boring

What would have made The Big Short better?

I could not keep my concentration in this book. It was monotonous with nothing of interest to make be continue listening.

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