The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him. (Location 57)
Mobile homes were different from the wheel-less kind: Their value dropped, like cars’, the moment they left the store. (Location 332)
The subprime mortgage market was generating half a trillion dollars’ worth of new loans a year, but the circle of people redistributing the risk that the entire market would collapse was tiny. (Location 1097)
AIG Financial Products was created in 1987 by refugees (Location 1105)
Note: AIG is why it was possible. but why did aig think it was possible
When Mike Burry bought a credit default swap based on a Long Beach Savings subprime–backed bond, he enabled Goldman Sachs to create another bond identical to the original in every respect but one: There were no actual home loans or home buyers. Only the gains and losses from the side bet on the bonds were real. (Location 1204)
but, then, an entire financial system was premised on their not knowing, and paying them for this talent. (Location 1367)
Danny’s trading life was man versus man, but this felt more like man versus nature: The synthetic CDO had become a synthetic natural disaster. “Usually, you feel you have the ability to control your environment,” said Danny. “You’re good because you know what’s going on. Now it didn’t matter what I knew. Feel went out the window.” (Location 3466)
Most of what I knew about the financial crisis I knew from the characters of my book. (Location 3830)
