Chapters 4-5 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 4. How to Harvest a Migrant Worker.

AIG FP did not get Lippmann's message as he assumed they had. Only one person, Gene Park, who worked in AIG FP's Connecticut office, began to investigate the CDSs his company was selling and came to the conclusion that these CDSs contained more subprime mortgage bonds than anyone knew. When Park tried to tell this to his boss, Joe Cassano, he was screamed at for it. Eventually, however, Cassano would come to agree with Park.

Lippmann continued to search for investors, but found it difficult. For this reason Lippmann pitched his ideas continuously to Steve Eisman. Steve and his team continued to be skeptical and began investigating on their own. As they investigated, they found patterns in the people and states that suffered the highest default rates. At first they did not...