Everyone has seen the movie "The Big Short" but you really have to read Michael Lewis' book because, unlike a movie, you can read a book slowly which is essential if you want to get your mind around the financial depravities in the world.
You want to read it slowly, and you want to take notes, and you want to highlight whole paragraphs to be able to go back to them, if you want to understand how all of this could really have happened. Better still, why not watch the following documentary but who wants to watch that after Hollywood had already turned it all into a sexy story starring Brad Pitt.
I was still reading it and taking notes and highlighting whole paragraphs as I sat in my GP's waiting room to get my turn with the friendly young phlebotomist (look it up, Des!). During my annual check-up to renew my driver's licence last year, the GP had mumbled something about hypercholesterolaemia and put me on a three-month course of tablets, and it was now time for another bloodtest to see if they had worked.
They also wanted a urine sample to ascertain my "FBC, LFT, U/E, TSH, Fe Studies, HbA1C, BSL, Lipis/HDL, LDL" (don't even try to look up this alphabet soup, Des!), and as I stood in that little cubicle fumbling, I suddenly realised I had put on my underpants back to front. I'd never dropped my pants so fast before to get it all into that litlle bottle!
I was still reading "The Big Short" as we sat in the coffee bar of the Catalina Country Club where Padma had bought me a big piece of Frangipani Cake as a reward for my long fast since the night before.
I won't know the outcome of my blood test and urine sample for a bit, but we all know what the outcome of "The Big Short" was, don't we?
