Michael Lewis and Wall Street’s Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis is out with a new book “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” which discusses how the big hitters on Wall Street destroyed $1.75 trillion of capital. His phrase ‘Doomsday Machine’ is reminiscent of former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson’s ‘Doom Loop’ phraseology which I reviewed two weeks ago.

Below, Lewis discusses his take on events with 60 Minutes. He focuses a lot less on criminality and looting and a lot more on a mass delusion caused by skewed short-term incentives.

Update: Lewis is also on Bloomberg talking about the same issues. Here he adds in a different spin on Greece and the currency default swaps debacle. Video below.