The Big Short by Michael Lewis (30)

Aside from This American Life's numerous shows explaining the subprime mortgage crisis, Michael Lewis's The Big Short is the best. Lewis tells the story of our financial armageddon and actually makes it entertaining and mostly understandable. He identifies the main characters of a narrative, makes them heroes, and lets them explain the plot.

Writing about what I learned in The Big Short is much more aggravating than reading it. I now understand the basics of CDOs, credit default swaps, shorting a bond/stock/company, subprime mortgages, hedge funds, and the ratings agencies. And I now have a deeper understanding of the depravity, greed, stupidity and laziness of the human race. Lewis explains that the people in charge of the "too big to fail" firms investing consequential sums of money in the subprime mortgage machine, and most of their employees, had no idea what they were doing with this money. When they finally caught on, they had already failed.

I suppose ignorance is more comforting than evil.

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis (23)

I used to think that growing up would be awesome. I would have money, freedom and responsibility for determining my future. Unfortunately for my childhood dreams, growing up has been a series of disillusioning realizations.

Lately, books haven't helped muster optimism. The Imperfectionists was about work making life miserable. And Liar's Poker told the story flawed and unjust system that exists in the real world. A conservative- free market-capitalist-libertarian, has a certain faith in the market to balance the sale and purchase of goods and services according to what they are worth to the people selling and receiving them. Liar's Poker reinforced the lesson that this just isn't always the case.

Liar's Poker is hilarious and easy to understand. Michael Lewis wrote down his experiences working for a Wall Street company in the '80s as a bond trader. He sort of stumbled upon the job and admits to having no idea what he was doing at the time, so the descriptions of bonds aren't too technical or confusing. Don't get scared away knowing it's about trading mortgage bonds, the book is really more of a narrative featuring the ridiculous people who traded bonds than about the actual trading.

The stories of traders and Wall Street can really upset any belief in the fairness of the market as it is. Lucky for the reader, Lewis can accurately caricature his former bosses, so Liar's Poker doesn't gets too depressing.

Well, thanks, world, for being disillusioning.

Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (18)

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Kay, Men In Black

Lay and professional economists are too optimistic about citizens' reactions to laws, markets, and incentives. I studied economics at a conservative college and slid into thinking that people know themselves and care enough to make relatively informed decisions about their lives. Thaler and Sunstein are honest about the human laziness and apathy that economists ignore, though they say it nicely.

Thaler and Sunstein make gentle, convincing arguments that people need a little nudge when making big , rare decisions with little feedback or chance for correction - mortgages, loans, health insurance, and other important things that people often mess up.

It was difficult to follow the flow of Nudge at first after a fiction binge, but the arguments are easy to understand and the writing is personable and earnest. Thaler and Sunstein build trust by exposing personal flaws to the readers, like forgetting to turn in health insurance forms at work for good coverage. It's a great read for people who are moderately interested in political issues, but are repulsed by the vitriol of current political discussion. It is balanced and logical without jargon or superiority. Plus, the elephants are cute.

Preparing for the Future - Living Now

Realizing that I, not my money, bills, employer, country or situation, am in charge of my employment is like discovering a new power.

It's easy to feel like a victim of circumstance. Sure, the economy basically imploded and I got laid off from my first job after college. As a newlywed and the major source of family income, I felt obliged to take the first job offered to me - because, hell, how many people are unemployed for only a week? Everyone urged me to accept. I listened to them against my personal objections and got stuck in a job that a child could perform. I was forced to accept and remain in this job because my family needed the money. I had no choice, right?

That's what I thought until this week. Every day I make the choice to stay here and continue along unchallenged, stunted, bored. The longer I'm underestimated, the worse it is for my soul, and the longer I stay in a job unrelated to my skills and interests, the worse it is for my career. It is not more impressive to stay with one company in a low level job than to show that I tried to find my true vocation.

I may not know what that vocation is (honestly, I'm completely clueless at this point), but as I continue to look, I'm convinced that I will get closer and be able to hear the call. It may be faint now, but it's not getting any louder if I plant my feet and plug in my earbuds and listen to The Beatles. (But, my god, "I Me Mine" is amazing, isn't it?)

If I ever want an enjoyable career, and if I want to be proud of myself right now, I need to change my attitude, work hard, scour my resources for opportunities, and finally use my power to be in control of my career and my contentedness. I can't let my fear of poverty snuff my desire to live and work well.


Stuck in a job you don't like? Screw your courage to the sticking place:
Seth's Blog "Take What You Can Get (?)
Salon "Working Too Hard"