The Big Short is Michael Lewis‘s expose of the subprime mortgage debacle that underpinned the 2007 economic melt-down and subsequent Recession. The narrative is a compelling one on several levels. First of all, Lewis is a superb writer. His characterizations of the odd-ball personalities who first understood the inevitable collapse of the subprime house of cards are marvelous. You really want to know more about these people as the story evolves. Fascinating, too, is the tale of the enormous financial industry that was clueless about the obvious fraud it was perpetrating on millions of homeowners and investors. Finally, the book is a sobering account of raw greed on an incomprehensible scale. You don’t need to understand collateralized debt obligations or credit default swaps to realize the first question you need to ask your broker is “How are you going to screw me?” I hope members of Congress read this book as they formulate new regulation of the financial industry…. but I doubt they will.

We attended our first concert of the season, a guitar performance by Ángel Romero and Eliot Fisk at the wonderful Benaroya Hall venue. The two virtuosos lived up to their impressive reputations. Ángel Romero comes from the world-renowned Romero family and played several compositions by his father, Celedonio. I was impressed with how at-one he was with the instrument. The guitar was just an extension of his body and Ángel seemed to exert no effort to keep it in his grasp. Neither Trisha nor I had heard of Eliot Fisk before but he too has impressive credentials. He was one of the last students trained by Andrés Segovia (whom I had the pleasure to hear in concert some twenty years ago) and has been performing professionally for nearly thirty years. The highlight piece of the evening was Mr. Fisk’s solo of Isaac Albéniz‘s “Asturias” from the Suite Española, Op. 47. Hearing it played without an orchestra was a unique experience.