While it could have used a little more Margot Robbie in a bubble bath (see this fabulous scene from The Big Short if you’re too young to get the reference), financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Inside the Minds of Today’s Changemakers” lecture at UCSB on Saturday was certainly thought provoking and engaging. Though it gave a somewhat depressing perspective on the economy and corporate America, which — to be fair — would be hard to avoid these days, there’s no doubt that Sorkin is a smart guy with his finger on the pulse of much of what’s making things tick these days.
The author of Too Big to Fail and co-creator of the TV series Billions told the UCSB Arts & Lectures audience at Campbell Hall that he believes that the “big lesson about financial panic is that it’s actually only about one thing and that is debt.”
He continued, “Debt is the match that lights the fire — it is the magic ingredient.” He added that the phrase “too big to fail” has nothing to do with banks anymore. “It has to do with municipalities, towns, cities, states, and countries.” He used the Greek debt crisis as an example of the many interconnections and tentacles that could have taken down all of Europe.