Bouzid, Ahmed Salah EddineZerrouki, Zina2018-07-012018-07-012017http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/3744The following research is an analytical study of Michael Lewis' bestselling non-fiction book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (2010). More precisely, it attempts to examine the diverse facets of the economic crisis of 2008 and the phenomena allied to it. The study centers on the ideas of Greed, Fraud, and Usury, which have always been part of the American economic system. Dwelling on the insights of cultural materialism namely; structure, superstructure, hegemony and subversion, this research aims to argue that the Lewis' book is a form of criticism to the mortgage bond market and the American financial system in general. Our thesis is based on a number of assumptions. The first assumption is that the book recounts the real story of Wall Street, which helps the reader to understand the root causes of the recession of 2008. The second assumption is that the characters' experiences in Wall Street allowed them to observe the corruption of the system, which entails fraudulent acts driven by the banks' greed. In short, the purpose of this study is to provide a deep understanding of the workings of the American financial system and the real reasons behind its fall and also to allow for a new different perspective of viewing the Crisis of 2008.enEconomic crisisCultural materialismOther