Michael Lewis (aka Mr. Tabitha Soren) C or D/S & D

^^ good article, just read it this morning

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/24be34eb-ecfe-4969-88c2-5aa898db4139/buffett.jpg

new piece on AIG - http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/aig200908

wow thx 4 posting

excerpt from his new book - http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/04/wall-street-excerpt-201004

Read that the other day. Ends on just the right note, the whole piece is superb.

yeah i havent had a chance to read it yet - looking fwd to it

1 of the guys with a hedge fund in this has a glass eye and aspergers ? that is a good character

I just finished the big short - pretty fantastic, although I would have preferred there to have been more hard number crunching. the whole thing would be pretty lol if it was about some fictitious country, instead it's pretty sad and makes me want to move overseas.

he's got an article in the new vanity fair abt greece, it's pretty crazy

thanks, just reading

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010?currentPage=all

The glass-eyed Asperger hedge fund manager from The Big Short seems to have been portrayed with more than a bit of caricature by Lewis, so I'm not sure I buy his characterisations.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-07/burry-discusses-investing-in-farmland-real-estate-gold-video.html

MICHAEL LEWIS: Merrill Lynch fired analyst who predicted banking crisis because banks (clients) went ballistic
http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-lewis-merrill-lynch-fired-analyst-who-predicted-irish-bank-crisis-after-banks-clients-went-ballistic-2011-2

another great article on the financial collapse of a eurpoean country (this time, ireland): http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103?currentPage=all

he's apparently compiling these vanity fair pieces (greece, iceland, ireland) into a book

bump 4 fanboys

now on germany - http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/09/europe-201109

did anyone read this? wasnt really sold on it tbh

idk i thought it was pretty classic lewis -- not really as informational as his other european pieces, especially if you know your EU history, but i dug it nonetheless

really can't wait for his book

yeah i found it entertaining but pretty bullshit i guess? idk trying to explain germanys role in the credit crunch by using some stereotypes that he got out of an old book just seems weird

pretty BULLSHIT you say

AHA

classic pun

yeah i feel you -- i'm sure a lot of germans weren't really happy to read that the backbone of the piece was "well, germans might be really obsessed w/ poop" -- but that's a pretty unique, if not arguably interesting, way to tie a story together. and in some respects that's sorta what he does

i hadn't really been aware of the extent to which germany was the ultimate buyer for the toxic assets, so his point that germany is really bailing itself out rather than say greece was interesting. and that kind of fits with his theory about them wanting the outward appearance of being "clean".

but it feels like lewis was too embarrassed of his schiesse theory to discuss it with his german interviewees, except for his poor driver/translator, so the germans are frozen out of the conversation about their national character/stereotypes in a way that the other countries didn't seem to be. and it's already a wackier, more tenuous theory. i mean, i wonder what that finance minister thought of the story when it came out?

his point that germany is really bailing itself out rather than say greece was interesting.

yeah i wasnt aware of this either

i hadn't really been aware of the extent to which germany was the ultimate buyer for the toxic assets, so his point that germany is really bailing itself out rather than say greece was interesting. and that kind of fits with his theory about them wanting the outward appearance of being "clean".

yeah, if you read the 'big short' you'd already be familiar w/ lewis citing instances of american bankers openly referring to "stupid germans", but i really wasn't aware of the scope of it either

You guys need to watch Debtocracy -

http://www.debtocracy.gr/indexen.html

It's polemical but also important, I think.

The euro bailouts are just playing for time in the bond markets while banks try to subtly move their money out of problem areas; they have nothing to do with actually helping countries pay their debts.

For instance (as noted in Debtocracy) the terms of the first Greek bailout obliged the Greek government to spend tens of millions of euros on German and French military technology. As a quid pro quo. So follow the money: from German and French taxpayers... to the Greek government... and finally winding up in the pockets of French and German banks and dealers of arms. It's one of the most massive looting scams ever conceived: from the public purse straight to the pockets of private industry.

a lol hueg super entertaining piece containing one really good insight and an absurd psychological supposition tying it all together is p much lewis boilerplate, needless to say i ate it up

the poop

tracer hardly think tens of millions of euros would rank on the list of most massive looting scams ever conceived

Tens of millions just for the arms contracts alone

The bulk of it is just straight paying off banks

yeah but at the risk of questioning a film called debtocracy im not positive that you know the rest of the money can be assumed to be doing the same thing as that relatively small chunk of the whole

I'm not saying anything controversial, as far as I know! It's just a big circular operation - public bailout money going in the pockets of private creditors

lol yeah sry im just against all these documentaries 'inside job' 'the corporation' exposing corporate lies dun dun - tho to some extent like the money is gonna go away get paid etc somehow - not that its being approached in an optimal way at all - imho they just need to do away w/the euro would be the best approach

Its worth noting that the German and French banks are in such distress due to the reserve requirements of the Basel II banking accords, which in attempting to improve bank solvency, ironically pushed them to load up on sovereign debt of questionable credit worthiness.

The Euro banks began this global recession far more leveraged than even their American investment bank counterparts, which were running 35:1. Since their reserves (the 1 in that ratio) were partly held in Mediterranean co. debt thats falling in value, the contraction in Euro area lending would be more severe than in the US without some form of bailout.

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/11/michael-lewis-201111

abt california state & local govts

The perils of print-versus-web:

“The recall was, in and of itself, an effort by the people to say that a new governor—a different continued from page 183 person—could solve the problem,” says Paul.

Of course, if that was an exact quote...

a different continued from page 183 person

indeed

I love how the final act of arnold's life is 'la bike hipster'

Anyway, the larger issues -- sounds about right. And yet the place is not collapsing about our ears.

http://nymag.com/news/features/michael-lewis-2011-10/index4.html

The interview with him on Fresh Air today was very interesting, even though Terry Gross was more annoying than usual.

“It’s really one of the most remarkable long-form journalism careers,” says Gerald Marzorati, his former editor at The New York Times Magazine. “He’s had at least as big a career as Gay Talese or Joan Didion or Tom Wolfe. ”

big ups to michael and all

but prose-wise michael is maybe fit to shine tom wolfe's left wingtip

michael is awesome everyone just let him be himself

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/10/24/michael_lewis_s_home_game_the_essays_that_will_soon_become_a_sit.html

why do you need so much money michael lewis

He gave quite a commencement speech at Princeton: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S33/87/54K53/

The "Moneyball" story has practical implications. If you use better data, you can find better values; there are always market inefficiencies to exploit, and so on. But it has a broader and less practical message: don't be deceived by life's outcomes. Life's outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them. Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.

I make this point because — along with this speech — it is something that will be easy for you to forget.

I now live in Berkeley, California. A few years ago, just a few blocks from my home, a pair of researchers in the Cal psychology department staged an experiment. They began by grabbing students, as lab rats. Then they broke the students into teams, segregated by sex. Three men, or three women, per team. Then they put these teams of three into a room, and arbitrarily assigned one of the three to act as leader. Then they gave them some complicated moral problem to solve: say what should be done about academic cheating, or how to regulate drinking on campus.

Exactly 30 minutes into the problem-solving the researchers interrupted each group. They entered the room bearing a plate of cookies. Four cookies. The team consisted of three people, but there were these four cookies. Every team member obviously got one cookie, but that left a fourth cookie, just sitting there. It should have been awkward. But it wasn't. With incredible consistency the person arbitrarily appointed leader of the group grabbed the fourth cookie, and ate it. Not only ate it, but ate it with gusto: lips smacking, mouth open, drool at the corners of their mouths. In the end all that was left of the extra cookie were crumbs on the leader's shirt.

This leader had performed no special task. He had no special virtue. He'd been chosen at random, 30 minutes earlier. His status was nothing but luck. But it still left him with the sense that the cookie should be his.

This experiment helps to explain Wall Street bonuses and CEO pay, and I'm sure lots of other human behavior. But it also is relevant to new graduates of Princeton University. In a general sort of way you have been appointed the leader of the group. Your appointment may not be entirely arbitrary. But you must sense its arbitrary aspect: you are the lucky few. Lucky in your parents, lucky in your country, lucky that a place like Princeton exists that can take in lucky people, introduce them to other lucky people, and increase their chances of becoming even luckier. Lucky that you live in the richest society the world has ever seen, in a time when no one actually expects you to sacrifice your interests to anything.

All of you have been faced with the extra cookie. All of you will be faced with many more of them. In time you will find it easy to assume that you deserve the extra cookie. For all I know, you may. But you'll be happier, and the world will be better off, if you at least pretend that you don't.

Never forget: In the nation's service. In the service of all nations.

Thank you.

And good luck.

obama piece is kinda boring

I can't imagine it would be good.

flash boys is a good page-turner

i'm reading this now. lewis has a REALLY hard time relating to black people. the way he writes about oher and other "Blacks" is almost entirely anthropological, with him dimly wondering aloud why "they" don't think like him. i'm enjoying the book, but all of these moments are making me cringe. and let's not forget oher's white financial supporters, a husband who "doesn't know what race he is" and a wife who was brought up explicitly racist and talks about oher lovingly, but with the tone of "look at the beast." so so so weird.
― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Monday, September 25, 2006 11:17 AM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

some smart takes about the Tuohys in that other thread (though everyone else yelled at him)

I strongly suspect it occurred to Lewis that mmmmmaybe his next piece should be about people who aren't famous and actually do shit.

https://wapo.st/3Xr9usa

well, it also seems like an extension of his 2018 book The Fifth Risk

Oh I'm sure! But still, convenient.

I think Lewis’ best skill is describing and explaining the significance of arcane technical things.