Books like The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

01

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred economics read.

02

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Science

The Black Swan is Nassim Nicholas Taleb's argument that the most consequential events in history — financial crashes, technological breakthroughs, wars, pandemics — are not predictable outliers but structurally unpredictable ones.

Both dig into risk.

03

Fooled by Randomness

Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Psychology

Fooled by Randomness is Nassim Nicholas Taleb's argument that humans are wired to misread luck as skill, noise as signal, and random outcomes as the product of ability or effort.

Both dig into risk.

04

Freakonomics

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner · Economics

Freakonomics is economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner's argument that economics — properly understood as the study of incentives — can explain things that look, on the surface, like they have nothing to do with money.

A kindred economics read.

05

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

John Carreyrou · Business

Bad Blood is Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou's account of Theranos, the blood-testing startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes that claimed its proprietary technology could run hundreds of diagnostic tests from a single finger-prick of blood.

A kindred economics read.

06

The End of Wall Street

Roger Lowenstein · Economics

The End of Wall Street is Roger Lowenstein's account of the 2008 financial crisis, from the early signs of trouble in the mortgage market through the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the government interventions, and the immediate aftermath.

Shares financial crisis and risk with The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

07

Barbarians at the Gate

Bryan Burrough · Business

Barbarians at the Gate is Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's account of the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, at the time the largest corporate transaction in history.

Shares wall street and greed with The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

08

Liar's Poker

Michael Lewis · Business

Liar's Poker is Michael Lewis's account of his years as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s, the decade when Wall Street stopped being a gentleman's club and became something closer to a casino.

Shares risk and greed with The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

09

More Money Than God

Sebastian Mallaby · Economics

Sebastian Mallaby's history of hedge funds begins with Alfred Winslow Jones, who in 1949 invented the basic structure that still defines the industry: borrow money to buy what you think will go up, sell short what you think will go down, take a 20 percent cut of the profits.

Both dig into risk.

10

Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity

ed. Michael Lewis · Economics

Panic is an anthology edited by Michael Lewis, collecting journalism, essays, and firsthand accounts about five major financial crises from 1987 to 2007: the Black Monday crash, the emerging markets panics of the 1990s, the Long-Term Capital Management collapse, the dot-com bust, and the early signals of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Both dig into risk.

11

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Niall Ferguson · Economics

Niall Ferguson published The Ascent of Money in 2008, with timing that turned out to be acute: the book appeared just as the global financial crisis was unfolding, making its subject matter suddenly urgent for readers who had barely thought about the mechanics of credit default swaps or mortgage securitization.

Both dig into risk.

12

The Misbehavior of Markets

Benoit Mandelbrot · Economics

Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who discovered fractal geometry, spent decades arguing that standard financial theory systematically underestimates the riskiness of markets.

Both dig into risk.