Holiday Movie Going: The Big Short

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Why are several really good movies lumped into one small period of time? We go weeks with just garbage out there in the theaters, then all of a sudden, bam! Many terrific movies appear all at once. I have five movies I want to see in theaters before they disappear. I prefer seeing movies on the big screen with an audience all around me. Yesterday I saw The Big Short. It is a true story about several people who saw what was happening in the real estate market leading up to the huge worldwide meltdown. There is a narrator in the movie who breaks the fourth wall. He tells viewers that only a small number of insiders and weirdos figured out that this would happen. Since I am not a banking insider, count me among the weirdos. In 2006, I was looking to buy a house in the neighborhood where I now live. The prices doubled on these homes in less than one year. The entire area was priced well above what any public school teacher could ever afford. I asked the realtor who was helping me how the prices on so many homes could rise so far above what anyone in the middle class could pay. She told me about sub-prime loans, and the fact that banks were not checking out the finances of buyers. I was horrified. I could clearly see that this was a disaster getting ready to happen. I said to her, “But this is impossible. It will create a huge financial problem in the country when this bubble bursts.” The movie shows clearly that the bankers, the SEC, and real estate industry were/are stupid and greedy. Although this might not seem like a good time to watch a movie about how corporate greed ruined the lives of so many “common folk”, it should be seen by everyone. Nothing has changed, and this could/will very well happen again. When it does, maybe do what I did. I told the realtor that I didn’t want to involve myself in anything so corrupt. Did you see the writing on the wall during the boom before the bust?