Bird and Fortune - Subprime Crisis
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a funny but accurate send-up of banker thinking, noting that comedians grasped the crisis before Lehman collapsed.
What it is
John Bird and John Fortune satirize the investment banking mindset in a mock interview about the subprime mortgage crisis. The sketch lampoons structured credit products and the banks' reassurances shortly before the crash.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2008 to 2018.
What Hacker News said
Recommends ra · 2008-10 · on “The Commanding Heights - 6hr documentary on the global economy (2003)”
Oohh... This is one of my favourite documentary series of all time. Compulsive viewing. I'm not sure how it exposes anything about the current situation, but it sure underlines what the free-market economy means, how it came about and why it's so important for our lives. One of the underlying messages in the series is that Free markets and Free democracy are intrinsically linked. I'd be really interested to see a 2008 update on this. One that takes into account the new China and Putin's Russia. While China is touched upon in the series - I feel that the author would have many more insights on the impact of China on the rest of the world, today. And Putin's Russia - well here's another piece
Recommends pdfernhout · 2018-09 · on “Post-crash economics: have we learnt nothing?”
Well, at least comedians seemed to understand the crisis several months before Lehman crashed: "Subprime Banking Mess" [this video] "John Bird and John Fortune (the Long Johns) brilliantly, and accurately, describing the mindset of the investment banking community in this satirical interview."
Cites mtgx · 2017-07 · on “Big Banks Had a Spectacular Quarter Despite All the Rules”
They started doing the same stuff they did pre-crisis like months later. But first they made sure to pay themselves billions of dollars in bonuses. [this video]