Author: Abbigail Woodworth

By: Abbigail Woodworth

It is common to hear someone say “Those Taylor Swift fans are crazy” or “Everything is always about Taylor Swift.” I can say that those 2 statements are true, at least about myself. My studying is spent with headphones on, listening to her entire discography, my drives home, my showers, everything. I am always listening to Taylor Swift. I spend my weekends watching her record-breaking “Eras Tour” on my phone on some livestream. I also love to talk lyrics and discuss the meanings and stories behind her songs. I think more people would have more of an appreciation for her if they listened to her lyrics rather than her music. For example, in her album “Folklore” the whole theme is about a love triangle that Taylor completely made up. All of the main characters in this triangle “Inez” “Betty” and “James” are famous actress; Blake Lively’s children’s names. Or how her name album “The Tortured Poets Department” gives us a glimpse into Taylor’s recent relationships that have ended. For example in her song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” there are many clues that she is talking about ex-boyfriend Matty Healy. With comments like “if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal”(Swift, T. (2024). The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. TTPD) Taylor was on tour during their relationship and broke up suggesting that Matty’s goal was to ruin her experience on tour by breaking her heart. Or when she says “In your Jehovah’s Witness suit” (Swift, T. (2024). The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. TTPD). Matty is known to perform in suits that resemble the likeness of those suits. There is more to Taylor and her lyrics than people realize, although most argue that most of her songs are breakup songs. I will agree with the statement that most are about breakups, but if you dive further you’ll realize that they relate to so much more than breakups. 

To prove my statement above, I will be relating Taylor Swift’s song “How Did It End?” on her newest album TTPD to the 2008 Housing Crisis. This may seem like a long stretch for some but upon further analysis of the lyrics you too will see the similarities. Throughout this, I will be taking lines from Swift’s song and comparing it to the housing crisis. Let’s start at the beginning. “We hereby conduct this post-mortem. He was a hothouse flower to my outdoorsman.” (Swift, T. (2024). How did it End?. TTPD). The housing crisis has ended and all that is left is a massive number of foreclosed homes leaving many without houses and a bunch of economists slowly losing the money they are used to having. A “hothouse flower” is someone fragile because they have been sheltered or protected, they haven’t been left to the elements to develop endurance. The hothouse flower in our case is the economist who had been sheltered from the real world. They did not see the effects of their poorly written mortgages and the trading of their CDOs, these men had been sheltered from the real world which allowed them to move selfishly in the housing world by trading CDOs and doing what would make them the most money. A great quote within The Big Short captures this beautifully Lewis says “There was a thrilling disconnect between the pain you experienced and the damage you caused.” (Lewis, p. 145) Saying that these men were so disconnected from the damage they were causing by trading these CDOs and giving out these loans. The outdoorsman in this is the people, the homeowners. The ones who were left in the elements and had to receive the brunt of the Economists’ “fun game”. These homeowners were often drowning or faulting in mortgage payments and would eventually end up without homes.

A common theme within the housing crisis is that no one had any idea what was going on in The Big Short a character who was introduced by Michael Lewis is Charlie Ledley the kind of guy you find where the money is. Charlie is quoted saying “I had a vague idea what an ABS (asset-backed security) was.” “But I had no idea what a CDO was.” (Lewis, p.126). This is just one small example of the many people who had no idea what was going on during this time. These are people who were holding your mortgages and didn’t even know what they were doing. The people you are told to trust and blindly trust. We naturally trust those within certain fields because we simply believe they know more than us. After all, they are supposed to be the experts. Taylor says it best,  “We were blind to unforeseen circumstances. We learned the right steps to different dances (oh). And fell victim to interlopers’ glances. Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?” (Swift, T. (2024). How did it End?. TTPD). All involved in this crisis were all blind to the unforeseen. Michael Lewis suggests throughout the book that no one had any clue what was going on. Those involved in it were blinded by the money and the homeowners were blinded by the mortgages they could now get, and their futures and dreams of owning a home, their house. These same homeowners had trust in their banks and mortgage holders to know what was best for them; blind trust. They fell victim to the interlopers within the companies who were buying and selling these mortgages without any knowledge of what they were dealing with. All of these factors influenced the multiple mortgage faults and foreclosures. 

The homeowners are the victims in all of this, many having to leave their homes and fault on their mortgages or others who had their homes foreclosed on and left without a home to live in. Many of these average people wanted the dream like we all do, they wanted a nice home to live in and many to grow a family. However, due to the negligence of the economist and those involved with buying and selling these mortgages they had borrowed too much from those who couldn’t pay that much. Like Lewis describes in The Big Short “There weren’t enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors appetite for the end product.” (Lewis, p. 143). These investors and economists knew exactly what they were doing, they wanted those with the “shitty” credit. These homeowners were being set up to fail without even knowing it. Leaving them without the homes they had always dreamed of. “The deflation of our dreaming. Leaving me bereft and reeling. My beloved ghost and me. Sitting in a tree. D-Y-I-N-G” (Swift, T. (2024). How did it End?. TTPD) This lyric I believe perfectly captures the feelings these homeowners must’ve had finding out their homes were being foreclosed, or choosing the difficult decision to leave and fault on their mortgages. Their dreams of owning a house were not deflated. 

Like all things that go up, they must come down, and that is exactly what happened to the housing crisis of 2008. To economists it was harmless trading for more money, as it progressed some saw it for what it was and knew it wasn’t going to end well. To this day no one knows who or what caused this crisis. Leaving many without a finger to point and others angry. Taylor ends her song with “But I still don’t know. How did it end?” (Swift, T. (2024). How did it End?. TTPD). Taylor perfectly captures the housing crisis, as everyone is left with one question How did it end? The crisis left many homeless, in debt, and careful with who they trust. 

You may have read that and thought “Okay but what a crazy stretch, to compare a 2024 Taylor Swift song about a breakup to the 2008 housing crisis that affected real people.” To which I would say, you are right. It was a stretch to connect these two completely different things. However, upon further analysis, the stretch doesn’t seem as crazy when you look at the lyrics and relate them to the crisis. Above is evidence that you can create something from what may seem like nothing. But like King Lear once said “Nothing will come of nothing.” (Shakespeare p. 64).

The Big Short is a nonfiction book that ties the stories together of a few people who predicted the 2008 financial crisis and made massive profits from betting against the housing market. The book dives deeper into how the housing bubble was created by risky mortgage lending, subprime mortgage backed securities, and the complicity of banks and rating agencies. The book also follows the stories of hedge fund owners like Micheal Burry and Steve Eisman, who saw the potential collapse and how unaware Wall Street was of the risks. The book ultimately highlights the greed, corruption, and failures that contributed to the worst financial crisis in history. While we are analyzing the big short, we have connected it to the Human landscapes in SW Florida pictures. This is a series of photographs that all have a commonality. Within this picture essay these photographs are all of developments within SouthWest Florida. However, it is important to note that most of these developments are incomplete or partially complete. Many of these incompletions are due to bankruptcy and the partially complete are due to foreclosures. Although amongst these photos there are completed developments full of 100s of houses. You must also know that they are complete but the houses are completely empty. It is hard to pinpoint an exact reason for the financial loss within these developments, it can be assumed and connected to the concepts stated and explained within The Big Short. We will analyze these terms and what they mean Risk, Trust, Foreclosure, Mortgage, and Moral Hazard. Risk is defined in financial terms as “the chance that an outcome or investment’s actual gains will differ from an expected outcome or return.” (Investopedia). Trust is “a legal entity with separate and distinct rights, similar to a person or corporation.” (Investopedia). Foreclosure is “a legal process that allows lenders to revolver the amount owed on a defaulted loan by taking ownership of and selling the mortgaged property.” (Investopedia). Mortgage is “a loan used to purchase or maintain a home, plot of land, or other real estate.” (Investopedia). Moral hazard is “the risk that a party has not entered into a contract in good faith or has provided misleading information about its assets, liabilities, or credit capacity.” (Investopedia). Throughout this essay we will be unpacking each concept and how they connect to The Big Short and the SW Florida pictures.  

Moral Hazard is a top concept within The Big Short. Many bank owners knew and did not care about hurting the working people who lost their houses, 401k plans, and money. “And that banks that used it were really just banking on being able to rip off poor people even more than they could if they charged them for their checks.” (Lewis, pp. 19-20) Risk is represented in that the economists and big finance institutions took the risk in the trading of these CDO’s. These CDO’s and the mortgages given at the time were actually hurting the people. The mortgages given way exceeded what people could pay causing most of the time for houses to go into foreclosure. During the time in which this trading was happening the money was coming in and no one could’ve expected the foreclosures that would happen by the thousands. Many of the loans that were given people couldn’t afford. A lot of houses went into foreclosure because of the loans given out. “On June 25 the total number of loans in default spiked to 18.68% percent” (Lewis, p. 197) The Big Short pays a lot of attention to the bankers and the money makers rather than talking about those who had faulted on their loans and the effects these loans had had on the people taking these loans out. The number of people who couldn’t or barely made their mortgage payments was large and it shows in the numbers. Within The Big Short mortgages were given despite evidence that they could be paid back. These mortgages were then sold from company to company as CDO’s. Economists had trust in the CDO’s they were buying, they had faith that the CDO’s would make them money. Was eager to make the most money and just did that. These shortly fell through and a crash happened and the CDO’s were no longer profitable.

Within the picture essay of the “Human Landscapes in SW Florida” At the time these developments were being built and or were built their emptiness was due to the mass of foreclosures due to the unreasonable mortgages given to people who were unable to pay these mortgages. This essay has examples of foreclosure like in pictures 1, 4, 13, 15 developments went bankrupt and had to stop construction. Also in pictures like 2,3,4,5 and so many show fully completed developments. To the eye they look full however it is stated in the beginning that most of these developments are empty due to mass foreclosures. Moral Hazard is represented in most to all of these pictures, these houses are built close to water sources like the ocean, man made lakes, or even rivers. The hazard with this is the potential for flooding, storms, or any other type of water related damages. These home owners had more care about the mortgages they were offered instead of the potential risks of being in such close proximity to water. Another course concept in this picture essay is trust in the literal sense banks granted money to these developers to build. But either the bank or developer fell through with money and they could not be finished, defaulting on their trust to the other party. It was also trusted that there would be people to fill these houses and they did. Until they could no longer make their mortgage payments. Developers took risks in building these developments with the promises they would be filled. Homeowners took risk of living near the water

Although it’s hard to make conclusions about these developments and the true story behind them by just having pictures. This is closely similar to the CDO’s in which no one truly knew what they were and it became hard to make conclusions about the CDO’s also. However, we can take the course concepts we have been focusing on to make connections between the picture essay and The Big Short. Moral Hazard is prevalent within both of these pieces for example the financial institutions that participated in the CDO trades had no care for what would happen to anything but their wallets, this carelessness led to the 2008 housing crisis. The photo essay shows the effects of the decisions of the developers and governments who made these housing lots prioritizing profit and growth, placing the weight of the consequences on vulnerable people and communities who are trying to live in these housing developments. Due to the crisis and greed of these large companies, countless homes are left vacant and thousands of people are forced to default on their mortgages. 

 “A giant number of individual loans got piled up into a tower.” (Lewis, p. 26) The metaphor of the tower is an interesting one, as Lewis describes that the mortgages with the lowest interest rates got paid back first and had the highest ratings. The lower floors had the lower ratings and the highest interest rates, but these floors were risky as you risked people defaulting on their mortgages. (Lewis) It was the higher interest rates that were more attractive as these mortgages would take longer to pay back making more money for those who owned the mortgages. However, the risk comes in because of the higher interest rates it makes these mortgages difficult for the payer to pay back causing in these defaults and foreclosures. The Big Short is a textual example of these defaults but the picture essay gives us picture evidence of this. In the picture essay all of these developments that are complete are empty like in pictures 16,19,21, and 22. Most of these houses in these pictures are empty due to foreclosures and defaults on mortgages. Customers trusted mortgage lenders and banks, “The subprime mortgage loan was a cheat. You’re basically drawing someone in by telling them, ‘You’re going to pay off all your other loans–your credit card debt, your auto loans—by taking this one loan. And look at the low rate!’ But that low rate isn’t the real rate. It’s a teaser rate.”(Lewis, p. 19)

 There’s a quote in The Big Short on page 145 that says “The shotgun kicked and bruised your shoulder, but the Uzi, with far more killing power, was almost gentle; there was a thrilling disconnect between the pain you experienced and the damage you caused.” Although within the context of the book it is talking about guns and the shooting range, this quote applies to the whole housing economy of the time. During this time economists within the housing and mortgage industry were trading and selling these CDO’s. It wasn’t promised that these CDO’s would make any money but the risk was worth the outcome. This relates to the incomplete housing developments in pictures 1,4,13,15 of the picture essay because in the same way the economists were taking a risk in buying and selling these CDO’s banks were taking risks on developers and developers were taking risks on bankers. Bankers took the risk of writing these loans to developers to build these houses and huge developments. The more houses you have the more mortgages you can write, which means the more CDO’s you can sell and the more money you can make! Although it appears the crash and faulty mortgages caught up to the developers leaving their developments bankrupt and unable to complete.

We care because this was happening to other human beings. Customers were trusting banks and mortgage lenders to be honest and transparent with them. These banks and mortgage lenders were backstabbing customers by issuing high-risk subprime loans to borrowers who couldn’t afford them. This led to many people losing their jobs, homes that were in foreclosure, and poverty. These connections tell us about the housing market and how people interact with mortgages now because the 2008 crisis and the landscape photos taught us we must be more careful with who we give out loans. This taught the banks to be more strict about people’s FICO scores instead of giving away big loans to people with low/bad credit reports.

By: Maggie Kiernan, Cole Kominiarek, Sarah Lyons, Jordan Welker, Nyna Garduño, Abbigail Woodworth

King Lear is a Shakespeare play that is a tale of power, love, deception, and mental rage. It all starts when King Lear decides to divide his kingdom among his 3 daughters; Regan, Goneril, Cordelia. However, these divisions aren’t of equal amounts of land and he must decide which daughter is more worthy of the biggest plot of land. King Lear determines that he’ll divide his land by simply having the girls express their love to him, and whoever loves Lear the most gets the biggest piece of land. Regan and Goneril are first and second to express their love. Their expressions are extravagant and feel a bit scripted. However, Lear loves their expressions and hopes Cordelia’s expression will be similar to that of  her sisters. Cordelia is quick to disappoint her father as she says she doesn’t need words to show how much love she has for her father. She expresses that her love for her father is more than a scripted extravagant tale. Lear is enraged by her response and expels her from the kingdom to never return. With Lear’s beloved Cordelia expelled he is left to divide the kingdom among the 2 remaining daughters; Regan and Goneril. Regan and Goneril love their newfound power and kingdoms. However, they don’t enjoy their father being around. So they each expel their father from their kingdoms, giving Lear to the outside and casting him out of his own and known society. During Lear’s time in the elements, side character Edmund the bastard child of Gloucester is up to his own scheme. There’s someone in Edmunds way; Edgar. Edmund falsifies a letter from Edgar which gets Edgar expelled. Edgar becomes unrecognizable and is referred to as Poor Tom to the community. As the storyline continues Lear’s mental state continues to deteriorate and war breaks out. Regan and Goneril start to fight over Edmund. Edmund and Edgar fight because of Edgar’s need for revenge on his brother for what he did to their father. Then in true Shakespeare fashion the ending is bloody and full of death. 

In King Lear the concepts of liquidity and swapping are apparent. Liquidity can be defined in multiple ways. One definition that correlates to King Lear is liquidity in relation to how efficiently assets can be turned into cash. The more general definition is liquidity in the sense of a free-flowing substance, like water.  Another concept that is important to the play is swapping, which can be defined as the exchanging of something. 

Liquidity and swapping interact with King Lear. Throughout the play, swapping represents the multiple shifts in power from inferior to superior or vice versa, as well as swapping of characters, and swapping of emotions. Swapping is shown when Edmund forges a note and pretends to be Edgar, which concludes in Edgar getting expelled. Another example of swapping of characters is when Edgar swaps to poor Tom when he gets expelled. King Lear’s position of king gets swapped to nothing when he is expelled by his daughters. Swapping is also shown in the play as a swap of powers. For instance, Lear’s power is swapped into the hands of his two daughters, Reagan and Goneril. Swapping of emotions is shown by King Lear and Cordelia. Cordelia is the favorite daughter at the beginning of the play, but once she says she does not need to express her love through words, she turns into the least favorite. The swap of emotions also occurs with the daughters and King Lear. The daughters express their love for Lear to inherit his power, but once they gain his power, they kick him out. It seems as though the love they verbalized is swapped to nothing when they allow Lear to be expelled. As there are many examples of swapping in King Lear, liquid(ity) is also a key concept expressed in the play. Liquid or liquidity can have a literal or metaphorical meaning and both can be seen and expressed throughout the King Lear play. There are specific ties to the literal meaning of liquid in many scenes throughout the play. Some of these examples can be found when Cordelia cries when she receives news that she was being expelled by King Lear as well as Gloucester crying over Edgar and losing his eyesight. Another example of the literal definition of liquid in use would be the big storm in Act 3. All of these interactions seem to be tying back in the concept of physical liquid representing either a change or sadness in the storyline. The metaphorical meaning of liquid is also often referenced through examples in the play. Specifically from the beginning of the story to the end there is an ever-changing shift in the mental state and thinking of King Lear. We believe this is a representation of the concept of liquid being unpredictable and ever-changing. 

Both liquidity and swapping interact with expulsion throughout King Lear. Throughout the play, swapping interacts with expulsion in many ways. The extreme situation of the swapping of powers between the daughters, Reagan and Goneril and King Lear results in the expulsion of Lear from his once owned kingdom. Lear begins the play with all of the power. As Lear divides the power between his two daughters, he is left with none. Expulsion connects to swapping as Lear gets expelled by his daughters when he no longer holds power. Lear gets expelled and left in the storm outside with no power remaining. Liquidity has a connection with expulsion throughout many instances in the play. But a major concept of the play being the division of King Lear’s kingdom between his daughters ties into liquidity. According to investopedia liquidity refers to the efficiency in which an asset can be converted into cash. This has a connection to expulsion because the division of the kingdom can be viewed as Lear’s way of getting rid of his assets and responsibilities and in turn expelling himself from the kingdom and his duties as king. Another way this connects to expulsion is one of the daughters will not be receiving the kingdom therefore being expelled. 

This exercise raised many questions relating to the similarities between King Lear and the 2008 housing crisis. During the 2008 housing crisis big banks were carelessly granting loans to under qualified people, this led to a housing bubble that collapsed and ended up backfiring on both sides.  Due to King Lear’s carelessness when dividing his kingdom to his daughters who were  under-qualified, he ended up alone with no resources. We can relate this to the swiftness of homeowners when applying for a NINA (no income, no assets) loan. These homeowners were granted loans that they knew they would never be able to pay off inorder to delay being foreclosed upon. After reading King Lear we were able to relate these loans to the two daughters of Lear having no true love for their father, but with a simple short talk where they lied about how much they loved him, they were given half of the kingdom. This again brings up the NINA loans where people who normally wouldn’t qualify for large loans were getting them with no questions asked.  As the play continued King Lear’s mental state continued to decline due to his expulsion not only from the “love” of his daughters but also his power. We can also relate his declining mental state and his distress to how residents of homes reacted when they were being foreclosed upon. When reading future texts that may seem like they have no similarities to the housing crisis, we can think of the questions raised in this exercise and use them while reading to help us spot the similarities right away. After this exercise, anytime someone in power acts a certain way we can be conscious of how his or her decisions will affect their outcomes.