I just finished watching a K-drama on Netflix called Dead End Job. It was an interesting show but I want to focus on one small part. There is a scene where the sister walks in to talk to her brother about paying back their mother and learns he bought stocks. The reaction would be similar if someone in America had borrowed money to bet on the Browns winning the Super Bowl.
That reaction exposed something to me. I am an American living in an American world, but America is only 4% of the world population and even among that 4% I live in my own little bubble. Our world is bubbles inside of bubbles and truly getting outside of our own thoughts and seeing the world how it is or how other people see it is extremely difficult.
A lot of the K-drama’s on Netflix are about money and the widening wealth gap. How desperate people will do desperate things and how quickly we lose our humanity when given the opportunity for vast wealth. Having written that it is interesting the Korean view on investing and it can be seen in comparing Kospi’s movement to the S&P.
American media might not be that different. Stocks are treated differently. Not as risk but as opportunity. Even a movie like Trading Spaces makes that clear. But think about the characters. Even in a movie like The Big Short where the characters appear to be better people than Michael Douglas in Greed or Jordan Belfort, are they?
Michael Burry is played as the miss understood child trying to prove himself right. He really isn’t that different from Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon. Think about what happened. Michael Burry saw an opportunity. He saw that banks were giving out subprime loans in record numbers and wanted to short the housing market. The banks ended up selling him credit debt swaps which weren’t a product intended for this use. In some ways Michael Burry is like someone walking in a neighborhood, notices that a utility company cut a gas line, and instead of warning anyone he puts a stack of firewood next to it. Burry didn’t create the issue but he did take advantage of it and when the banks had to pay out those credit debt swaps, the rest is history.
