Foolishness and Folly Quotes in The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Having done his research on the subprime market, Michael Burry is confident that someone is about to owe him a whole bunch of money. But who? This questions comes up a lot throughout The Big Short, and the difficulty our heroes have finding an answer only illustrates the confusing nature of the financial market. Strap yourselves in, folks.

Here's what makes this even worse: AIG has no idea they're doing it. They're completely ignorant. This is our first real indication that the subprime market is fueled as much by shortsightedness and insufficient analysis as it is by out-and-out fraud.

This is another running theme in The Big Short: the angry, emotionally volatile boss. In many ways, these guys play a big role in the subprime crisis, with their lack of knowledge leading them to take insane risks with their companies' money. To make things worse, many of these guys squash the opinions of anyone who tries to disagree with them.

In other words, bond traders have no incentive to be knowledgeable, because they can make tons of money without being knowledgeable. Why even bother at that point? This cycle of ignorance goes around and around until even Wall Street has no idea what's going on within their business. Great job, dudes.

This fact gets proven true time and time again in The Big Short. It makes sense, too, when you think about: these guys are less than willing to critique the subprime market, because it makes them consider the possibility that they'll soon be dead broke.

Foolishness and laziness often go hand in hand, and Wall Street is no exception to this rule. Whether it's because they don't want to damage their relationships with big firms, or because they sincerely believe that these mortgage bonds are A-Okay, the big rating agencies totally fail to do their due diligence with the subprime market.

Steve Eisman spends a lot of time wondering whether he made the wrong decision about the subprime market—until he meets Wing Chau. Chau is a super-wealthy CDO manager who also happens to be a total buffoon, and his complete lack of understanding of the product he sells is simply staggering. It shows Eisman the caliber of people on the other side of his trades.

Just like a person represses a traumatic memory, the financial market tries to ignore anything that doesn't fit into its narrow view of the world. This, ultimately, only worsens the crisis, as it could have been avoided many times over if Wall Street had simply examined the things it was doing. But it didn't. In the words of the great financial analyst Mr. T: "We pity the fool."

This is the eternal question of The Big Short: Was the crisis caused by fools or con artists? It's probably a mix of both, as Vinny says here, but we're not sure if the answer really matters—all that matters is the consequences of their actions.

That's one bright lightbulb—and one scary thought. If we can't expect the CEOs of banks to have a strong understanding of economics, then who can we expect to have our backs? That is, besides quirky introverts from California and self-righteous Spider-Man fanboys.