This actually relates to something that happened a couple of weeks back; specifically, we went to see the movie The Big Short. It was one of the most disgusting things I've seen. No, not the movie. The movie is one of the best pieces of cinema I've seen in a couple of years.

I'm talking about the story behind the film. Specifically the sub-prime mortgage crash that was one of the big contributors to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.

It was based on a book by Michael Lewis, who is capable of not merely making stories accessible but personal. Its four main stars were Christian Bale (who may be a jerk in real life but is one very fine actor, as much at home as Batman as he is as a socially dysfunctional ex-doctor with a genius level insight into the way the world really does work rather than how it is supposed to), Brad Pitt (whose role in this is relatively minor, but who is far more than the pretty boy that some people accuse him of being when he puts it up on the screen), Ryan Gosling, who I haven't seen a lot of but who made this part his own, and Steve Carell. Carell is someone who I either really like or really dislike in the things that he's in. And in this... he went beyond brilliant. He played a fund manager named Mark Baum (who is based on the real life Steve Eisman) who starts out somewhat cynical about the way the system can screw people who are down the pecking order over... and ended up utterly disgusted by it. One scene at the end of the movie, where he was torn between doing the right thing and doing what was right (you'll get the distinction if you'll see it) was absolute artistry. Every gesture and expression was timed to convey what he was thinking and feeling.

I was going to summarise how the sub-prime debacle happened but that would be over-length even for one of my commentaries. See the film. Think about it. And maybe get a little angry, because at the bottom of the pigs' trough is the likes of thee and me.

Speaking about a company that was engaged in blatant fraud in the early days of sub-prime mortgages, Eisman, quoted by Lewis, said:
"They should have taken the CEO out and hung him up by his ****ing testicles. Instead they sold the company and the CEO made a hundred million dollars. And I thought, Whoa! That one didn’t end the way it should have."

Wow. I wish I could write like that. Oh wait, I do write like that. Those words could have come out of my mouth. Keyboard. Whatever.

And remember this... only one person went to jail in the whole sub-prime mortgage debacle. A low level scapegoat.

Hence, in this image I lied about the "Bank Error In Your Favour". If you're at the right level, you don't get $200, you get millions, regardless of how badly you screw up. The taxpayer will foot the bill. You do, however, get a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. And in the meantime the boot of the dysfunctional, under-regulated finance sector and its sub-prime mortgage market kicks over the homes of ordinary people.

This is my first attempt at a light-painting shot; that is, where I went for a long manual exposure and waved a light source over the subject during the exposure to create a light and shadow pattern. Early days yet for that technique for me. Don Mottershead, that one's for you; it's been a couple of years since I saw the technique used in one of your galleries but it's stayed at the back of my mind ever since.

Oh, the title?

It pretty much sums up Michael Lewis' writing. And the technique that I've used here.