Greg Lippmann (Big Short): The $1 Billion Bet

Greg Lippmann (Big Short): The $1 Billion Bet

Who is Greg Lippmann of The Big Short fame? How was he involved in shorting the housing market leading up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis? Greg Lippmann is a hedge fund manager and the former head of asset-backed securities trading at Deutsche Bank. He’s known for his involvement in shorting the housing market in the early 2000s. In the film The Big Short, Ryan Gosling’s character is based on Greg Lippmann. We’ll cover how Greg Lippmann orchestrated much of the activity surrounding shorting the housing market leading up to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.

Household Finance Corporation: Billions of Profit for Fraud

Household Finance Corporation: Billions of Profit for Fraud

What happened to Household Finance Corporation? Why did it have to pay a $484 million fine, and how did the scandal serve as a harbinger of the coming greed and deception of the subprime loan market? Household Finance Corporation was a leading corporation providing mortgage loans. It was merged with HSBC in 2004 after a loan fraud scandal. Learn how the Household Finance Corporation scandal affected customers and what the attitudes of the corporation’s leader and those tasked with protecting consumers say about the causes of the 2008 financial crisis.

Synthetic CDO: What It Is (And Why It’s Controversial)

Synthetic CDO: What It Is (And Why It’s Controversial)

What is a synthetic CDO, or synthetic collateralized debt obligation? A synthetic CDO is a type of CDO that bundles credit default swaps into a new financial product. While a traditional CDO is valued based on cash assets like mortgage payments, the value of synthetic CDOs comes from the premiums paid on bets that certain bundles of securities (like mortgages) will default. We’ll cover what synthetic CDOs are, why they’re so confusing, and how their involvement in the 2008 financial crisis makes them controversial.