The Big Short And The Upcoming Huge Short

We saw the movie The Big Short yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Despite it being an indictment of some greedy people, the protagonists*, with one exception, were greedy and nihilistic themselves. Then again, nearly every movie these days is nihilistic. The movie felt like it was directed by a combination of the Communist Workers Party and Hugh Hefner. Having said that, I still really enjoyed it.

These days, if you're a traditionalist, you have the choice of accepting the popular culture's descent into decadence and enjoying what you can of it or not engaging with the culture at all. I figure you might as well enjoy some of it.

The movie tells the story of the guys who realized there was nothing of value behind the mountains of mortgage-backed bonds. There are some really chilling moments where they make one discovery after another showing that it's all a giant house of cards. As I watched, I thought about the much, much bigger house of cards that are national finances.

Dig this.

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet approved on Thursday (Dec 24) a record fiscal 2016 budget that counts on higher growth and tax revenue to achieve his aim of reviving the economy and reining in huge public debt.

The atomic bomb that went off in 2007 was contained by the Fed, the ECP and the BoJ printing mounds of unbacked money to buy up the worthless bonds and rescue the banks. There is no similar backstop for Japan, Europe or the US. I've blogged many times in the past about this, but watching the movie was somewhat frightening as I tried to envision what's coming.

Oh well.

Personally, I'm preparing by doing something I'd do whether a global currency crisis was coming or not - I'm paying off my mortgages so that I can live completely debt-free. I'm at a loss as to what else to do.

* - One can't call them heroes. These days, most movies have no heroes.