The Big Short, the Fed, and the Market

The Big Short — based on Michael Lewis’s bestselling book on the 2008 financial crisis — is both great and terrible. It’s wonderful as a narrative of a financial mania. It’s terrible if seen as a complete treatment of that mania’s underlying causes or a path to future solutions. There’s no question that the movie is significant and is being pushed as the go-to film for the key economic event of our times. Two New York Times film criticsthink the film ought to be considered for a Best Picture Oscar. Paul Krugman agrees, writing: “I think it does a terrific job of…