The Big Issues in The Big Short

The most striking scene in the film The Big Short directed by Adam McKay is not one in which a big financial deal is made or in which the carelessness of a real estate mogul becomes very clear to the audience. The most striking scene in the film occurs when, all of a sudden, being right suddenly feels wrong, and all the money that is to be made by a very small group of people is now meaningless.

The Big Short is a 2015 film about the real estate market crash in 2008 that sent the whole world economy into a downward spiral towards eventual recession. I’m sure many of you remember when this happened; for some of you, this may have been all too real of an experience. The film is witty and clever, and the all-star cast does not fail to deliver. It is also highly informative, taking time to explain the lingo that is used and what exactly is wrong with what is happening. The “big short”, the financial move from which the film draws its name, can best be explained as betting against the housing market, or saying it’s going to fail. In the film, a few small groups of people go to large banks and say, “I want to ‘short you’ for this much money (usually a very large sum)”. Their reason behind this was they saw that the large banks were giving loans to just about anyone who asked for them, and the loans were all going to implode around the same time in 2008 because people weren’t paying them. When this happened, those who had shorted the banks would make loads of money.

So, fast forward through a couple years, and it finally happens: the real estate market crashes. People lose homes, jobs, cars, and everything in between. Yet, there is a very small group of people that made millions, in one case billions, of dollars off this collapse. How do they feel about it? Awful. Two characters, Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley, end up outside of Lehman Brothers where all the employees are carrying their personal belongings out of the building because they are sure their bank just went out of business. They then enter the bank and the audience can see their hearts instantly sink. It doesn’t matter that they just made millions of dollars. Some people lost it all. This scene is the most striking for that very reason; the change of heart is visible.

One of the greatest sins is pride. Pride can come in many shapes and forms, but a big one that many are susceptible to is the desire to be right and the stubbornness in holding to that, even when it seems obvious that one is no longer right. Or sometimes, a person will go to great lengths just to prove him/herself right, even at the cost of another’s self-esteem, reputation, status, etc. Many of us have experienced that. We finally prove ourselves right, and yet the satisfaction we hoped for isn’t present. Instead, shame has taken its place. What is the value of being right? Why is it so important to us? What’s wrong with being wrong? I hate to pass the answer off on “human nature”, but I think that is the only answer that fits. And it all goes back to pride. It is a part of our human nature to want to be right and to be seen by others as intelligent or wise. Human nature, compounded with societal expectations, places intelligence and wisdom and “being right” at a much higher level than being kind, humble, and admitting when one is wrong. It is a good thing that Christ constantly reminds us that the world should never be our benchmark for success: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18 RSV). In other words, when we have the humility to admit being wrong, even when it seems weak, we are in good company.

Right alongside pride is greed. The desire for money, power, stature, things, etc. consumes many people. This is obvious in the film. People like Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley, while they do not recognize it at the time, are setting themselves up to make immense sums of money directly from the financial sufferings of others. Yet, they have a realization that many of us come to when we recognize that we’ve been greedy: it’s not worth it. Geller and Shipley’s human nature kicks in; they realize that they have hurt fellow human beings. It’s no longer just a numbers game and it definitely isn’t about the money anymore. Human lives are ruined, and they profited from that, and I’m sure that is an awful feeling. When have we put things before people? When has gain come at the cost of others?

To put this together into one nice, neat, phrase, I would say that love of other must come before what might appear to be love of self, because in loving another, we find the means to love ourselves. Feel free to let me know if I’m wrong.