The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Headed by the brilliant, if tyrannical, Joe Cassano, AIG FP insures billions of dollars’ worth of subprime mortgage bonds without understanding how worthless many of them are. A massive bond default is possible, and by the time Cassano realizes the danger, it is almost too late. The insurance giant nearly goes bankrupt, but the government erases the worst of its debts with loans that total more than $100 billion.

Bear Stearns is an aggressive and powerful investment bank that becomes the first to fall in the runup to the crash of 2008. Among its liabilities are $9 billion lost by one bond trader, Howie Hubler. The investment bank J.P. Morgan acquires Bear Stearns’ remains.

When the subprime mortgage crisis breaks, Citigroup’s investment banking division is caught with debts of $300 billion. It is saved from bankruptcy by the government, which takes on Citigroup’s losses.