The Big Short - wikipedia The Big Short For the film based on the book, see The Big Short ( film ). The Big Short : Inside the Doomsday Machine Hardcover edition Author Michael Lewis Country United States Language English Genre Finance Publisher W.W. Norton & Company Publication date March 15, 2010 Media type Print ( hardcover ) Pages 320 pp. ISBN 0 - 393 - 07223 - 1 OCLC 567188407 LC Class HC106. 83 L5 2010 Preceded by Home Game Followed by Boomerang The Big Short : Inside the Doomsday Machine is a non-fiction book by Michael Lewis about the build - up of the United States housing bubble during the 2000s. The book was released on March 15, 2010, by W.W. Norton & Company. It spent 28 weeks on The New York Times best - seller list. Contents 1 Summary 2 Reception 3 Film 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Summary The Big Short describes several of the main players in the creation of the credit default swap market that sought to bet against the collateralized debt obligation ( CDO ) bubble and thus ended up profiting from the financial crisis of 2007 -- 08. The book also highlights the eccentric nature of the type of person who bets against the market or goes against the grain. The work follows people who believed the bubble was going to burst, like Meredith Whitney, who predicted the demise of Citigroup and Bear Stearns ; Steve Eisman, an outspoken hedge fund manager ; Greg Lippmann, a Deutsche Bank trader ; Eugene Xu, a quantitative analyst who created the first CDO market by matching buyers and sellers ; the founders of Cornwall Capital, who started a hedge fund in their garage with $110,000 and built it into $120 million when the market crashed ; and Michael Burry, an ex-neurologist who created Scion Capital. The book also highlights some people involved in the biggest losses created by the market crash : like Merrill 's $300 million mezzanine CDO manager Wing Chau ; Howie Hubler, known as the person who lost $9 billion in one trade, the largest single loss in history ; and Joseph Cassano 's AIG Financial Products, which suffered over $99 billion in losses. Reception The book was shortlisted for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. It spent 28 weeks on The New York Times ' non-fiction bestseller list. It also received the 2011 Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Book Award. Film Main article : The Big Short ( film ) Paramount acquired the rights to The Big Short : Inside the Doomsday Machine in 2013. On March 24, 2014, it was announced that Adam McKay would direct the adaptation. On January 13, 2015, Variety reported that Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling were set to star in the film, and Pitt would produce the film with McKay and Dede Gardner. Steve Carell then joined. Plan B Entertainment financed the film with Paramount handling the distribution rights. Production started on March 23, 2015 in New Orleans, LA. The film was released on December 11, 2015, and was met with critical acclaim, winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. See also CDO - Squared Collateralized debt obligation Credit default swap Mortgage - backed security The Greatest Trade Ever, a 2009 book by Gregory Zuckerman References Jump up ^ Lewis, Michael, `` Betting on the Blind Side '', Vanity Fair, April 2010 Jump up ^ `` Stories on Howie Hubler '', The New York Observer Jump up ^ `` U.S. offers more funds to help fraught AIG : $30 billion more in loans ; $61.7 billion lost in the fourth quarter '', MSNBC, March 2, 2009. Jump up ^ `` The New York Times Bestseller List '' ( PDF ). The New York Times. October 10, 2010. Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 19. Jump up ^ `` RFK Center Book Awards ''. Jump up ^ Dave McNary ( March 24, 2014 ). `` ' Anchorman 's ' Adam McKay Boards Financial Drama ''. Variety. Retrieved January 14, 2015. Jump up ^ Borys Kit ( January 14, 2015 ). `` Steve Carell in Talks to Join Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling in ' The Big Short ' ''. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 14, 2015. Jump up ^ Justin Kroll ( January 13, 2015 ). `` Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling to Star in Financial Drama ' The Big Short ' ( EXCLUSIVE ) ''. Variety. Retrieved January 14, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Brad Pitt Film `` The Big Short '' Casting Call in LA ``. Auditions Free. March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2015. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : The Big Short The Big Short, at W.W. Norton ( official book site ) ' Shorting our Future ', a review of The Big Short in The Oxonian Review Works of Michael Lewis Books Liar 's Poker Trail Fever The New New Thing Next : The Future Just Happened Moneyball The Blind Side Panic : The Story of Modern Financial Insanity The Big Short Boomerang : Travels in the New Third World Flash Boys : A Wall Street Revolt The Undoing Project Film adaptations The Blind Side Moneyball The Big Short Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Big_Short&oldid=797442117 '' Categories : Works about the subprime mortgage crisis 2010 books 2000s economic history Books about companies Books about traders Business books W.W. Norton & Company books Books by Michael Lewis Books adapted into films Non-fiction books about the Great Recession Hidden categories : Use mdy dates from November 2016 Pages to import images to Wikidata Talk Contents About Wikipedia Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Norsk Português Русский 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 27 August 2017, at 02 : 22. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who is the big short based off of
Answer: non-fiction book by Michael Lewis about the build-up of the United States housing bubble during the 2000s