The Big Short

The Big Short follow Michael Burry, Mark Baum, and other groups of investors as they came across the corrupt and manipulative banking procedures that would eventually lead to one of the biggest financial crises in U.S. and world history.

The saying "greed is good" by Gordon Gecko praises people's greedy nature as an underlying engine that drives U.S. capitalism. On the other hand, theres the classic statement, "just because it's legal, does not mean it's right." Both of these statements provide two distinct perspectives on greedy nature and capitalism within the U.S. economy. Leaders in today's society must find a common ground that satisfies both a business' capitalistic nature and need for profits and their people's morals. How do they do that?

The Big Short showcases how the bank's greediness had gotten the best of them. They had been granting mortgage loans to all people, even those who were unqualified and had little to no income. These risky loans were backed by the bank's desire for higher profits and were then bundled with other risky loans to be described as "diversified" and therefore, "not risky at all". This is a moral and ethical dilemma as the banks were essentially giving houses to people who couldn't afford them. It was doomed to fail.

The next ethical dilemma comes from the different groups of investors, such as Michael Burry, who recognized the banks' fatal flaws. He saw these flaws as an opportunity to short the banks against the housing market, which was deemed as the most stable market at the time. This would make the investors fabulously wealthy if the short happened, but would bankrupt their companies if they failed, costing people their jobs.

This was a really tricky situation to be in because it's essentially a lose-lose for the American people. Either the housing market doesn't collapse and people are given loans to homes they can't afford or the housing market does collapse and the world economy crashes, costing many people their homes and their jobs. I really love one of the quotes by Ben Rickert because I believe he summed it up perfectly:

• Ben Rickert : If we're right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number - every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?

Overall, this entire dilemma was caused by greed. The greed of people and corporations caused the downfall of many American people. People lost everything in the 2008 financial crisis from savings to 401k's. That is not alright. Companies have a moral obligation to care for and look after the wellbeing of their consumers, as well as their employees. Therefore, this whole situation should have been avoided by following the policies and procedures in place to ensure that people get mortgage loans that they can pay back. However, corporate greed got the better of people and it hurt the people they were meant to protect.

As a society that is based around the ideas of capitalism and freedom, the American people are very individualistic. We do what is best for ourselves, while forgetting about the common good. I believe as long as this stands true, we will always have people who want to win. As long as there is a concept of winners, the losers will also exist. We can still see this today, such as in the Silicon Valley Bank, who was giving risky loans to just about anyone who wanted one, even the people that could pay it. When the bank failed, it was helped out by the government, just like many of the banks in 2008. History repeats itself for those who are unwilling to learn from it.