The Big Short Movie Essay

The mortgage crisis of 2007 marked catastrophe for millions of homeowners who suffered from foreclosure and short sales. Most of the problems involving the foreclosing of families’ homes could boil down to risky borrowing and lending. Lenders were pushed to ensure families would be eligible for a loan, when in previous years the same families would have been deemed too high-risk to obtain any kind of loan. With the increase in high-risk families obtaining loans, there was a huge increase in home buyers and subsequently a rapid increase in home prices. As a result, prices peaked and then began falling just as fast as they rose. Soon after families began to default on their mortgages forcing them either into foreclosure or short sales. Who was to blame for the risky lending and borrowing that caused the mortgage meltdown? Many might blame the company Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but in reality the entire system of buying and selling and free market failed home owners and the housing economy.

During the early 2000 's, the United States housing market experienced growth at an unprecedented rate, leading to historical highs in home ownership. This surge in home buying was the result of multiple illusory financial circumstances which reduced the apparent risk of both lending and receiving loans. However, in 2007, when the upward trend in home values could no longer continue and began to reverse itself, homeowners found themselves owing more than the value of their properties, a trend which lent itself to increased defaults and foreclosures, further reducing the value of homes in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. The 2008 crash of the near-$7-billion housing industry dragged down the entire U.S. economy, and by extension, the global economy, with it, therefore having a large part in triggering the global recession of 2008-2012.

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

After the optimistic forecast from the realstate that the houses value were going to increase, many institutions started to make adjustments to take profit from this trend. In some cases, prime mortgages were allowed for subprime borrowers to take. This might look like a great idea to financial institutions because the house values were rising: if a people (who in the first place couldn’t afford a house) stop paying their mortgages then the bank could sell the house for a value greater than the one at the moment of default. Everything was going well, so how is it that the crisis unfolded? Well, these institutions wanted to make more profit

The beginning of the crisis is rooted in banks giving out subprime loans to people who would have not otherwise been given these loans. The banks assumed that these loans could be bundled and the numbers proved that they were safe investments, because enough people would pay their loans back.

Simply put, it all commenced within the United States housing market. In the years leading up to 2008, buying and selling mortgages became a very popular way for lenders to make money. While housing prices continued to increase, lenders found themselves in a win-win situation. If homeowners paid their mortgages, the lenders made money. If homeowners could not pay their mortgages, they would

The Big Short is a movie about the crash of the housing market in 2008. This economic crisis of 2008 is similar, but different, than the economic crisis of the Great Depression in 1929. They were both an economic downfall creating panic in the US economy.

The housing crisis in the late 2000’s was created in part from subprime loans that lenders gave to individuals that did not have to provide proof of income that they could afford the house. This was a disaster likely to repeat itself. If a person is hoping to buy a home, they will buy whatever the lender allows them to purchase even though it could be a financial stretch. Lenders, builders, sellers, appraisers, buyers, owners, and governmental policy makers are all still gambling with the economic future of both their buyers and the American economy as a whole.

Before the 1970’s banking was not a business that you went into to make money and it remained that way until Louis Ranieri came around. Louis Ranieri had one idea that changed the housing market forever. His plan was to have a mortgage back security. Mortgage back securities are an asset based security backed by a mortgage. For example, if you use your mortgage to start a business, your business is backed by that mortgage. The average mortgage loan has a fixed rate loan and takes thirty years to pay off, however, when bundling them all together it’s an opportunity to make greater profits. Mr. Ranieri believed these would still be less risky because people are more likely to pay their mortgages off.

effectively encouraged frivolous spending and heavy borrowing allowing people to live beyond their means. Low interest rates also increased the discount value of assets and therefore increased their value. This created a house price boom in the UK and US. It was in the US that this twined with high levels of borrowing created the subprime lending market, whereby individuals with poor or no credit history borrowed vast subs of money to buy

This was a big problem because the housing boom became an economic bubble. An Economic bubble is when a demand gets very high is the price inflates to the point where it is not sustainable and tends to burst as it gets too big. This is exactly what had happened. People wanted to buy expensive houses that they couldn’t afford. The money came from other countries so that getting good credit was easy and with that credit, they took out loans to buy the houses. This is called Sub-prime Mortgages. There are three types of mortgages. A Prime mortgage, which is issued to a person who has a solid credit history and a high likelihood of repayment, A Alternative A-Paper mortgage, which is a mortgage issued to a person with good credit, but without

The Big Short- Inside the Doomsday Machine was a very informative and interesting book written by Michael Lewis. This book was written about the genius foresight that a group of people had about the market at the time. The market that these men decided to researched and ultimately bet against was the housing market. Due to a lack of regulations this market was not stable and due to greed and other factors such as negligence this market ultimately crashed. This market took many years and poor judgment on the part of many to reach the situation it did and the subsequent crash of 2008 had world wide effects.

According to Fligstein, the next step in market formation was crisis. In The Architecture of Markets he states, “market crisis is first observed when incumbent organizations begin to fail.” From 2007-2009, the housing market crashed as the value of homes in the US fell drastically. As a result, many homeowners began defaulting on their mortgages causing huge problems for those involved in the mortgage securitization market. On September 7th, 2008 when the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) place both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under government conservatorship. In addition, the US Department of Treasury agreed to inject up to $100 million into each GSE in order to provide liquidity and to continue purchasing mortgage-backed securities in the market. This would slow the US housing market’s downward spiral. In return, the government would be able to purchase 80% of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The goal of these policy responses was to provide stability to the financial market and support the availability of mortgage finance.

One of the first indications of the late 2000 financial crisis that led to downward spiral known as the “Recession” was the subprime mortgages; known as the “mortgage mess”. A few years earlier the substantial boom of the housing market led to the uprising of mortgage loans. Because interest rates were low, investors took advantage of the low rates to buy homes that they could in return ‘flip’ (reselling) and homeowners bought homes that they typically wouldn’t have been able to afford. High interest rates usually keep people from borrowing money because it limits the amount available to use for an investment. But the creation of the subprime mortgage

The new lackadaisical lending requirements and low interest rates drove housing prices higher, which only made the mortgage backed securities and CDOs seem like an even better investment. Now consider the housing market which had become a housing bubble, which had now burst, and now people could not pay for their incredibly expensive houses or keep up with their ballooning mortgage payments. Borrowers started defaulting, which put more houses back on the market for sale. But there were not any buyers. Supply was up, demand was down, and home prices started collapsing. As prices fell, some borrowers suddenly had a mortgage for way more than their home was currently worth and some stopped paying. That led to more defaults, pushing prices down further. As this was happening, the big financial institutions stopped buying sub-prime mortgages and sub-prime lenders were getting stuck with bad loans. By 2007, some big lenders had declared bankruptcy. The problems spread to the big investors, who had poured money into the mortgage backed securities and CDOs. They started losing money on their investments. All these of these financial instruments resulted in an incredibly complicated web of assets, liabilities, and risks. So that when things went bad, they went bad for the entire financial system. Some major financial players declared bankruptcy and others were forced into mergers, or needed