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The Grapes Of Wrath Chapter Summary

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In 2008 the United States economy experienced a recession worse than any other in the country since the great depression. The recession was caused by the burst of the housing bubble. The housing bubble was created by an accumulation of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). CDOs are bonds that are made up of a collection of mortgages that give a return to the person who bought the bond when the mortgages are paid off by homeowners. In simpler terms, the person who invests in a CDO is betting that the mortgages are going to be paid off, and the bank is receiving insurance if the mortgage is not paid off. Before a few years leading up to the recession this was a very safe investment because mortgages were almost always fulfilled. This started to become more …show more content…

Two of these characters stand out as symbols for how the American people felt during the recession, Steve Eisman and Michael Burry. During the events of the novel, Steve Eisman is a hedge fund manager at a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley named FrontPoint Partners. Lewis describes Eisman as full of anxiety, sensing a change in the economy. He is also perpetually angry because he was unable to keep his brother from committing suicide and takes it out on what he thinks is a fraudulent United States economic system. Eisman finds his call to action by discovering the CDO crisis. He then bets against the housing market via credit default swaps. At the end of the novel, Eisman is still not entirely happy even though he beat the system. He realizes that because the system itself is so fraudulent, he cannot rejoice in his success since so many others are suffering because of it. Eisman symbolizes the American people because of his success is similar to people who got through the recession unharmed, but cannot be happy because of all of the people who did

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