The Big Short

Great Essays
The banking industry, challenged by risk and regulation, has progressed into an industry threatened by corruption. This corruption led America straight into the 2008 financial crisis, now known as one of the greatest crashes within the financial industry. The movie, The Big Short, successfully portrays this corruption by capturing the truth behind the big banks along with the lies told to the American people. A primary factor in the collapse of the financial market deals with predatory lending. Predatory lending is the process of placing unfair loan terms against the borrower. These unfair practices take full advantage of the borrower’s ignorance on the terms of the loan and the complexity of financing. Leading up to the collapse, big banks …show more content…
Throughout the years leading up to 2008, many individuals were involved in ponzi schemes, and clients lost faith of those in charge of handling their money (Morrison and Foerster). To save the financial industry, congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act. Before 2008 many different agencies regulated the financial industry. This led to different rules and standards for each entity and leaving some entities completely unregulated (Morrison and Foerster). The Dodd-Frank act aimed to put the US under one regulation and oversight system. This act resulted in many fundamental changes to the US financial system; holding eight components that make it difficult for a repeat of the financial crisis. Some of these components are things such as overseeing wall street, regulating risky derivatives, registering of hedge funds, overseeing credit rating agencies, and regulating of mortgages (Amadeo). The Dodd-Frank act has effectively put laws into place to prevent some of the largest factors that created the financial crisis such as predatory lending and the lack of regulation. These laws can be identified most clearly by understanding the ways in which banks were taking advantage of adjustable rate mortgages, CDO’s, credit rating agencies, investors, and credit default …show more content…
The corruption that occurred amongst the banks had to be stopped and the flaws that existed needed to be regulated. By executing the Dodd-Frank act, Congress now has regulations amongst the different structures of the financial system. Having regulations implemented in several different areas of the financial system, allows the system to have their own set of internal controls. Therefore, if one aspect of the system fails, another law or regulation will prevent the action from continuing. With rules and regulations having a stronger grasp around America’s financial system, congress aims to prevent a second crash of the financial industry from

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Glass-Steagail Act

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Another action the government took was passing the Glass-Steagail Act. This act separates the commercial banking from investment banking; it also prohibited commercial…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the crash of 1929, there was a need for an act that would limit the use of bank credit for speculation and to direct bank credit into what more fruitful uses, such as industry, commerce, and agriculture. In response to these concerns, the main requirement of the Banking Act of 1933 was to separate commercial banking from investment banking. Basically, commercial banks, which took in deposits and made loans, were no longer allowed to finance or deal in securities , while investment banks, which financed and dealt in securities, were no longer allowed to have close connections to commercial banks. After the act passed, banks were given a year to decide if they would dedicate all their attention to commercial or investment banking. Only…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When the financial crisis of the late 2000s hit, it revealed evident weaknesses in the U.S. financial regulatory structure. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is a United States federal law that was enacted in July 2010, following the financial crisis, to create financial regulatory processes to limit risk by enforcing both transparency and accountability. We are going to review the major costs and benefits of the new regulation standards and the effect it has had on Louisiana’s banking industry. Although Dodd-Frank has introduced many reforms that have increased stability and economic growth across the board, there are some areas that have had little, none, or negative impacts on economic stability.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The “too big to fail” theory states that main corporations, such as financial institutions, are so popular that failing, would cause a negativity factor to the greater economy. Governments need to step on the verge of failing. Eric Holder, an attorney, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the size of large financial institutions has made it difficult for the Justice Department to bring criminal charges when they are suspected of crimes, because such charges can threaten the existence of a bank and therefore their interconnectedness may endanger the national or global economy. Richard Fisher, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President, brought to the table the idea of breaking larger banks into smaller…

    • 2068 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Several months later came the Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act,…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is now called the, “Great Recession of the late 2000’s” led way to the Dodd-Frank Act coming into law. The major difference between before and after the Dodd-Frank Act was not the technology but more of how to refine the tools we have and have better processes in place to help compliance with these new rules and regulations. This was enacted to be a sweeping overhaul of the United Stated financial regulation system and to transform this area of the American economy. Some major provisions included in this act are, according to…

    • 1726 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Hoover's Economic Reform

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Section A: Identification and Evaluation of Sources This investigation will explore the question: To what extent did Hoover’s actions help America’s economy to begin recovering from the Great Depression? How Hoover took certain measures to pull the United States back up from its big fall will be the focus of this investigation to allow for an analysis of the U.S economic status from the Great Depression up until the end of Hoover’s presidency. The first source which will be evaluated in depth is Ralph Gordon Hoxie’s “Hoover and the Banking Crisis” written during the Hoover presidential seminar on August 7, 1974.…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In Joseph E. Stiglitz's essay Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society, he talks about inequality and how drastic it has become. Inequality in society was made by the people that benefited from it. The inequality level in America isn't normal compared to other countries and even the past in America it is an unnatural inequality. This is very unusual even in a recession, the economy weakens and wages drop which causes the price of goods to drop. But now even with the wage drop, many firms are still making good money.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He believes that government policy is the main cause of the financial crisis. Allison begins by blaming the regulatory environment in the financial services industry, calling it, “…probably the most regulated industry in the world.” (Allison, 5). Then he says that it is no surprise that it is also the source of so many of our economic problems. Allison points out that the technology industry, one of the least regulated industries, has continued to grow well.…

    • 1821 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    During one of the sessions, Elizabeth Warren- a chair on the panel- introduced the act in response to the financial crisis of 2008(Congressional Oversight Panel 2010). She explains that after the investigation, the panel decided to give money to certain corporations in response to the crisis. This Act was made into law on October 3rd, 2008 (Warren, 2009). As Congress, when there is a crisis occurring in the country they take certain actions to ensure the safety of the citizens (Halchin 2012). This is whether it is financial, economic, or social.…

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Depression was an extreme time of struggle for not only the economy of America, but also the American people of every race. The Great Depression took place from 1929- 1939. One of the main reasons of what led to the Great Depression was the crash of the stock market. The crash itself propelled and drove Wall Street workers straight into a major fear and nightmare that was thought and imagined to never come.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is a book written by Michael Lewis, which was published back in 2010. The story is based on a few smart individuals around the country saw something that nobody else did. They detected a behavior with the financing of the housing market that would eventually hit critical mass. A few of the people ran into each other by mistake, where others were former neighbors. In the end, two sets of groups worked together to make a bet on the flip side of the market, a term called shorting but had never been offered on home loans.…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a result of the Great Depression financial failures, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act prohibiting state and national banks from associating with security companies. Congress passed the Bank Holding Company Act that prohibited a bank from controlling a non-bank company in nineteen fifty-six (1956) (Center, 1994). As a result, congress amended the Bank Holding Act to further forbid the banks from creating insurance agency or underwriting activities in nineteen eighty-two (1982) (Center, 1994). Moreover, the GLBA repealed sections of these acts in the year nineteen ninety-nine (1999 ) and gave permission to banks to have an interest in financial services. In the year nineteen ninety-five (1995) the EU passed the Data Protection Directive that made the US companies ensure when they have used EU citizens personal data they would provide the same level of protection for citizens when within the EU (Center, 1994).…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 continues to be a hot topic today because it still impacts the lives of people today. Consequently, there are many theories explaining why this crisis happened, who were key players, and who were negatively impacted. It is clear that subprime mortgages existed because it provided attractive returns however, these attractive returns came with extremely high risks that eventually did not work out in both the lenders and borrowers favor. According to Pajarska and Jociene (2014) the subprime mortgage crisis was caused by the credit boom and the housing market bubble.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    INSIDE JOB ANALYSIS Submitted by Yashvardhan Singh, 2014PGP432 Inside Job is a commentary on the corruption in the financial system existing in today’s world. Starting from Iceland to USA, the film examines the key financial and political factors behind the financial collapse of 2007-08. The film starts from the political movement behind deregulation of the 1980s, development of trading instruments like derivatives and bundling of loans and mortgages into what was called Collateralized debt obligations (CODs). The film delves into how the subprime borrowers were given house loans at low interest which in the end led to collapsing of the whole system. The film ends by saying that despite recent financial regulations, the underlying system has…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays