“By early 2005 all the big Wall Street investment banks were deep into the subprime game. Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs,… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“Long Beach Savings was the first existing bank to adopt what was called the “originate and sell” model. This proved such a… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“What are the odds that people will make smart decisions about money if they don’t need to make smart decisions—if they can… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“They had stumbled either upon a serious flaw in modern financial markets or into a great gambling run. Characteristically, they were not… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“There was more than one way to think about Mike Burry’s purchase of a billion dollars in credit default swaps. The first… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“The creation of the mortgage bond market, a decade earlier, had extended Wall Street into a place it had never before been:… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“When you’re a conservative Republican, you never think people are making money by ripping other people off,” he said. His mind was… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“Back in July 2003, he’d written them a long essay on the causes and consequences of what he took to be a… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“Because the lenders sold many—though not all—of the loans they made to other investors, in the form of mortgage bonds, the industry… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“It is ludicrous to believe that asset bubbles can only be recognized in hindsight,” he wrote. “There are specific identifiers that are… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“When Steve Eisman stumbled into this new, rapidly growing industry of specialty finance, the mortgage bond was about to be put to… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“Both had trouble generating conviction of their own but no trouble at all reacting to what they viewed as the false conviction… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“The simple measure of sanity in housing prices, Zelman argued, was the ratio of median home price to income. Historically, in the… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“Crucial decisions are made, today as thousands of years ago, in terms of the intuitive guesses and preferences of a few men in positions… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“You saw someone who reminded you of you, and then you looked for the reasons why you liked him. The” — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“At other places management says, ‘Well, gee, fellas, do we really want to bet the ranch on this deal?’ Lewie was not only willing… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“BILLY WOULD SAY later that his wife left him because she was unnerved by his intensity—that she could even see it in his hands… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“The great thing about baseball players, from the point of view of personal hygiene, is how seldom they break a sweat.” — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
There was but one question he left unasked, and it vibrated between his lines: if gross miscalculations of a person's value could occur on… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“The author refers to a player's affected nonchalance and comments he is, "too young to realize you are what you pretend to be.” — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will. — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
Some coaches believed they could judge a player's performance simply by watching it. In this they were deeply mistaken. The naked eye was an… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“No longer were the prices of ordinary mortgage bonds allowed to roam inefficiently, for they were now linked to the CMO market, in much… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“The difference between Strauss and Ranieri?” says one trader still at Salomon. “That’s easy. Strauss wouldn’t stoop to use the men’s room on the… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
“The only inexplicable aspect of the process was that economic theory (which is, after all, what economics students were supposed to know) served almost… — Michael Lewis Copy Share Image
