The Big Short

Adam McKay's The Big Short is based on Michael Lewis' book about the 2007 financial crisis. It’s what's usually termed a docudrama (a category that also applies to Spotlight, the recently released film about pedophilia and the Catholic Church). However the film's hybrid nature results not only from the use of actors (Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Marisa Tomei) to tell a real story, but from the complexity of its tale. It bears the burden of trying to explain how a pair of esoteric financial instruments few people understood, credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations, could have created such a havoc in the lives of average people all over the world. During the course of the movie the economy of Iceland will tank and that of Spain will begin to titter. Many viewers of the film may still be perplexed about what exactly happened in financial markets and why for instance Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were allowed to fail while other financial institutions like A.I.G were bailed out with the help of the government. Here are a few choice quotes: “Tell me the difference between stupid and illegal and I’ll have my brother-in-law arrested…truth is like poetry and most people hate poetry….I’m standing in front of a burning building and offering to sell you insurance on it.” The following from Huraki Murakami also appears on the screen: “Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world.” The language is plainly an attempt to bridge the gap between economics and emotion, but it also leaves many loose ends, the greatest of which lies in how the SEC and agencies like Moody’s, that rate financial instruments, could have fallen asleep on the job. It’s logical on one level and yet on another makes absolutely no sense. In his early writings Marx talked alienation caused by the division of labor. If nothing else The Big Short takes this to its logical conclusion in dramatizing an unregulated financial system that has little if nothing to do with the lives of those who actually have to work for a living.

Diasporic Dining XIII: JP McChase

                      

JP Morgan Chase has surpassed McDonalds as the most ubiquitous occupant of retail locations in the New York Metropolitan area, and rumor has it that the banking monolith and the food giant are considering merger talks along the lines of Kinkos and Fedex. Thus, it would be possible to order a Big Mac Super Saver Special, with jumbo fries and soda, and make an equally gargantuan (or miniscule, depending on your finances) deposit when you’re finished with your meal. Previously, McDonald’s offered the opportunity for its customers to make deposits, but those came in the form of fatty deposits to your large intestine rather than cash deposits to your checking account.  Now, those who wish to purchase financial instruments in the new JP McChase will also be able to get something for their money. For instance, let’s say I purchase a collateralized debt obligation from JP Morgan Chase—a bundle of risky mortgages wrapped into a useless bond, on which the bank will undoubtedly profit by writing credit defaults swaps. I can still be assured that my purchase will be backed up by the promise of an almost unlimited amount of comestibles, which might be tastier than they are fungible. Chicken McNuggets might not translate into gold bullion, but the newly impoverished customer at JP McChase is not likely to go away hungry.

Architects of the merger have accounted for every contingency of gluttony and greed by modeling the eating/banking experience on drive-through transactions.  Each JP McChase will be equipped with a hotline that connects to a live responder. The responder will operate a powerful X-ray that will enable him to see if a customer’s fatty transaction is complete, and if his or her deposit, cash or carb, has gone through.