At its crux, short selling is about failure. Things break down.
Whereas most of mankind basks in a natural optimism, there are
those who navigate the darker side of events—the miscalculations,
fraud, and follies that spur us onward toward disaster. Catastrophe’s
natural handmaidens are greed and, yes, plain evil.
The natural state of a collapsing universe is the breaking down of
order. Short sellers understand this and seek to profit from it.
I knew these dynamics before starting this project in 2012. After
all, I quoted the pessimist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in college
and still enthuse over Samuel Beckett plays. In hindsight, I’m embarrassed
to say, my effort was more about careerism than anything else.
Colleagues and rivals were churning out acclaimed books in the wake
of the 2008–2009 financial crisis. I was toiling for Bloomberg News, at a
sparsely read monthly magazine under the yoke of a petulant editor. Yes,
I was proud of a good portion of my work—racking up a record 23 cover
stories. Some of it explored the underside of the financial crisis. But my
peers were on Charlie Rose or, worse, had even penned movie deals.