Watch The Big Short

This movie is based off the book by Michael Lewis, and it is about the fiscal collapse of 2008. The film focuses on three groups of people that were crucial to finding that the recession was going to happen, and how they were able to profit from it. In 2005, Michael Burry learns of the United States having an unstable housing market. This is due to the loans that are being given out that people are not paying back very much of. He projects that the housing market will collapse sometime in 2007. He decides to bet against the market, and creates a credit default swap. And his intention of profiting off of this news.

Another man, a trader named Jared Vennett, learns of Burry's plans and discovers that his predictions are true. Vennett decides to invest in the credit default swap market. By accident, a man named Mark Baum is alerted to these plans, and he too decides to invest.

More people, as time goes on, begin to invest in the plan. The plan is aided due to the sale of collateralized debt obligations. Bigger and bigger bets are being made against the faulty loans, making the heft of the fraud going on able to collapse the entire housing market.

Two of the investors in this plan enlisted a retired banker to aid them in buying in, and become excited when they learn of the housing collapse. Said banker is sickened by how happy they are about the impending collapse.

No one was arrested for their parts in the fraud.