Can I recommend an unreadable book?<\/p>\n
Let’s say I gave you the keys to a recording studio, and despite having no previous knowledge I told you to emerge in two weeks with a hit record, would you be able to do it?<\/p>\n
Even better, would you be willing to take the risk?<\/p>\n
No one wants to do the work.\u00c2\u00a0 No one wants to expend the energy to be able to comprehend and play in their chosen field, they’d rather just tear down the winners.<\/p>\n
Then again, in our sports-centric society, it’s mantra that you can’t succeed unless you play by the rules, the ones established by the big kahunas, who dominate the game you want to play.\u00c2\u00a0 If you question them, they say WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?<\/p>\n
And these big swinging dicks often succeed in keeping upstarts at bay via bullying.<\/p>\n
And there you have the music business in a nutshell.\u00c2\u00a0 The game is rigged against you, and the powers that be won’t grant you a toehold and will excoriate you ad infinitum if you try and challenge them.<\/p>\n
In other words, Irving Azoff is smarter than you.\u00c2\u00a0 But can you believe everything he and his compatriot Michael Rapino have to say about Live Nation and the touring market?<\/p>\n
I was fascinated by the excerpt of "The Big Short" I read on a plane back in March, made my yearly subscription to "Vanity Fair" worth it.\u00c2\u00a0 But I didn’t read the book right away, because it wasn’t available in a Kindle edition.\u00c2\u00a0 And by time it was, months later, the heat was off.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like the Kings Of Leon.\u00c2\u00a0 You wanted to see them LAST year, only losers are going now.<\/p>\n
But knowing I had a long flight to Europe, I purchased the book on my Kindle, but I didn’t start reading it until ten days ago.<\/p>\n
Now I know why the book’s had so little impact since the "60 Minutes" hype.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite selling so many copies, almost no one’s read it.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise, there’d be an uprising, demanding the heads of all financial institutions, regulation up the yin-yang.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, reading "The Big Short" is like gaining twenty years of Wall Street knowledge in one 266 page book.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like starting law school and having to pass the bar exam in thirty days, and defend a criminal in court thirty days after that.<\/p>\n
That’s what these guys are.\u00c2\u00a0 Criminals.<\/p>\n
You don’t have to be convicted to be a criminal.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, that’s the problem, everybody’s a criminal today, everyone’s cutting corners, screwing one another, trying to get ahead.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the essence of the tax cuts…\u00c2\u00a0 Under the fiction of growing the economy, the rich get to keep all their money.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t want to kill the economy, do you?\u00c2\u00a0 If those rich people don’t spend their money you won’t have a job and the country will go down the tubes.\u00c2\u00a0 You won’t be able to afford a flat screen!\u00c2\u00a0 You won’t be able to go on vacation!<\/p>\n
So even though you rent an apartment and drive a clunker, you’d better protect the fat cats, because one day you’re gonna be a fat cat too.\u00c2\u00a0 HUH?<\/p>\n
\n"’That’s when I decided the system was really, "Fuck the poor."’"
Steve Eisman<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nMy mother always told me the establishment knew, that the people in power were better than I was, that I could never play on their level, I was meaningless.<\/p>\n
But at least I was better off than Snooki.\u00c2\u00a0 You see they should cancel college, or call it trade school, or party school.\u00c2\u00a0 Most universities are diploma mills.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids drink and study business and think they’re equal to those in power.\u00c2\u00a0 Hogwash.\u00c2\u00a0 "The Jersey Shore" crew went to college.\u00c2\u00a0 But I doubt they could finish "The Big Short".<\/p>\n
Reading this book made me glad I grubbed grades to get into a good college.\u00c2\u00a0 Made me smile reflecting on reading books for eight hours a day at Middlebury.\u00c2\u00a0 You see it was all preparation, an entrance ticket to being able to read and comprehend "The Big Short", to being able to comprehend the financial system.<\/p>\n
Hell, I’m still not sure I get it.\u00c2\u00a0 But I haven’t read a book so slowly in eons.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I read a paragraph and scratch my head.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to go back to understand.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I finally felt good when a footnote said:<\/p>\n
"Dear Reader: If you have followed the story this far, you deserve not only a gold star…"<\/p>\n
I suddenly didn’t feel so dumb.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it was hard to understand.<\/p>\n
But that’s the essence of Wall Street.\u00c2\u00a0 The bond salesmen don’t give you the facts.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like buying a car not knowing what kind of engine it’s got.\u00c2\u00a0 From the outside, it looks good.\u00c2\u00a0 Does it have cruise control?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no brand.\u00c2\u00a0 You know you’re gonna get screwed…what is a fair price?<\/p>\n
Yes, that’s what buyers of these bonds say…they know they’re gonna get fucked.<\/p>\n
But it gets worse.<\/p>\n
Let’s say you’ve got insurance on your house.\u00c2\u00a0 And it burns down.\u00c2\u00a0 And you go to collect.\u00c2\u00a0 What if the insurance company didn’t agree the house had gone up in flames?\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t that make your head spin?\u00c2\u00a0 Or let’s say someone stole your new Mac, bought just the day before, and the insurance company said it was worth ten bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 You know it’s worth two thousand!\u00c2\u00a0 But it doesn’t matter if all your friends agree with you, it just matters what the insurance company says.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can sue, but what if the insurance company goes out of business!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, people bought credit default swaps from Bear Stearns, but if Bear Stearns went out of business, THEN WHAT?<\/p>\n
It’s like when record chains go out of business.\u00c2\u00a0 You lose everything.\u00c2\u00a0 The debt is uncollectable.<\/p>\n
You see everything is business.\u00c2\u00a0 But most people don’t understand.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the guy who lost $9.2 billion for Morgan Stanley had no idea what he’d bought.\u00c2\u00a0 He tried to protect his main asset by selling insurance on a new asset that he felt could never go under.\u00c2\u00a0 Which, of course, it did.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, greed played a factor, but even more important was ignorance.<\/p>\n
The heroes of this story are those who were willing to buck the trend, who were willing to question the powers that be and lay their money down to prove their point in a game that was rigged against them.\u00c2\u00a0 This is like believing Live Nation makes no financial sense and starting an indie promotion company.\u00c2\u00a0 Or competing against Universal Music.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you have the cojones?<\/p>\n
Almost no one does.<\/p>\n
The whole fucking country’s a free-for-all.\u00c2\u00a0 From Obama on down.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but Timothy Geithner plays for the wrong team and all of Washington is beholden to special interests.<\/p>\n
Then there are the truly ignorant.\u00c2\u00a0 Who say let’s just pray to God, cut taxes and eliminate all government spending.\u00c2\u00a0 This is exactly what the rapers and pillagers want, don’t you see!\u00c2\u00a0 An unregulated world where they can extract even more profit, as roads, bridges and entire cities crumble, all the while telling you that you need to swallow strong medicine while they go on in perfect health.<\/p>\n
I’ll make it perfectly clear.\u00c2\u00a0 The American public is TOO DUMB to save itself.\u00c2\u00a0 And those with a brain are too uneducated, or too unwilling to do the hard work to get ahead.<\/p>\n
Somehow we believe a bit of fame and some material comforts make a life.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, it’s no different from major labels who make an act a star and get rich while the act ends up broke.\u00c2\u00a0 The system never changes because there are endless marks lining up to get famous and then go broke.\u00c2\u00a0 The system can’t change because the vast majority of the public likes to get high and go to the sideshow, laugh at the idiots as anonymous string-pullers get rich behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
It’s not only these financial "wizards".\u00c2\u00a0 Try getting a major label majordomo to go on the record.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Michael Rapino.\u00c2\u00a0 They know it’s a scam, they don’t want the truth revealed.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re getting rich and they want no light shed upon their enterprise. They want to retire with money in the bank, enough for not only them, but their children’s children’s children.<\/p>\n
It’s all there in black and white.<\/p>\n
But the public would rather watch talking heads on cable TV argue about kidnappings and other irrelevant "news events".<\/p>\n
You can read this book and get ahead.<\/p>\n
Or you can take that challenge and try to create a hit record from scratch.<\/p>\n
Either you’re part of the problem or part of the solution.<\/p>\n
And right now, too many people are part of the problem.<\/p>\n
And too many of those who demand change don’t even understand the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only Sarah Palin, but the rest of the Tea Party.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you get it!\u00c2\u00a0 They love when you fight over immigration and religion and all the shit everybody’s got an opinion on. It just means that they can continue to make all that money doing stuff you just can’t understand.<\/p>\n
America used to be about the best and the brightest.<\/p>\n
Now we’re not even number one in college graduations.\u00c2\u00a0 Shopaholics make "Haul Videos" showing off the tchotchkes they’ve acquired.<\/p>\n
I’d like to pull you into the new world, get you to come along as we pull out our flashlights and try to peek under the rug, but you don’t want to come.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d rather just stay home and bitch.\u00c2\u00a0 Because if you left the comfort of your home, if you questioned authority, if you did something new, you’d be taking a risk.\u00c2\u00a0 And the real story is we’re a nation of complacent pussies, bitching that we want our entitlements, but we don’t want to pay for them.<\/p>\n
I’m sick and tired of it.\u00c2\u00a0 Turn off the TV set.\u00c2\u00a0 Sit down with this book.\u00c2\u00a0 Read it from cover to cover.\u00c2\u00a0 And then tell me I’m not right. Hell, if you think I’m not right then you WORK for one of these Wall Street firms.\u00c2\u00a0 Truly, your eyes will bug out when you read "The Big Short".\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll get angry, pissed, you’ll want to revolt.\u00c2\u00a0 But, like I said, most people can’t understand "The Big Short". And too many who can, are not willing to put in the time.\u00c2\u00a0 What a sad, sad state of affairs.<\/p>\n
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