Summary

Summarize the movie. Would/could it be categorized as a political scandal? Discuss the elements
that would/could make it a political scandal. Would it fit under a different type of scandal?
Explain.
Michael figured out mortgage bonds were going to fail eventually after he went through thousands of

mortgage bonds. He bet against the housing market by purchasing 1.3 billion shorts. Mark Baum and his

team found out about Jared Vannet trying to short housing bonds, so they met up with him to learn more

about it. After their meeting, Mark and his team learn about how terrible the housing market is and

collateralized debt obligations. Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley wanted to set up an ISDA agreement

with JPMorgan but were promptly rejected for not meeting the requirements. During this, they also

managed to learn about the housing market failing and how they have an opportunity in their hands to

make money out of it with the help of an ex-bank employee, Ben. While nobody else was paying attention

these guys took advantage of the situation and soon enough the market did collapse. When that happened,

banks went into bankruptcy, people lost their jobs/homes, and the ones who bet against it got their profit

in the end.

This would not be categorized as a political scandal, due to the fact that it does not contain any political

figure and is not directly related to fraudulent government decisions. Banks, bank employees, brokers,

etc. were the ones who were abusing their power and using it to benefit themselves at the risk of

financially harming normal non-suspecting citizens. This can be categorized as a finance scandal since

businesses such as banks were manipulating and tricking people with their money, which led to the

economic crisis of 2008.