The Big Short shows how systemic farce caused US job losses

It is not easy to find the humor in the financial crisis that hit the US economy eight years ago, but The Big Short uses comedy as a lens to examine the intricacies and failures of Wall Street.

The movie, starring Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Steve Carell and out in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, takes a quirky look at the mortgage-backed security debacle that led to the United States sliding into recession from 2007, and the money managers who bet against the financial might of the US economy.

And it had nothing to do with short people.