PLANO, Texas–The person who helped simplify the complex issues that were presented in the movie The Big Short will share his insights on storytelling during Catalyst Corporate’s 39th annual Economic Forum, Oct. 3-5 at the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, in the Dallas area.
Adam Davidson, who writes the weekly "It's the Economy” column for the New York Times Magazine and is a co-host and frequent contributor to National Public Radio’s Planet Money show, was a technical advisor to The Big Short, which used actors and celebrities such as Margot Robbie, singer Selena Gomez and chef Anthony Bourdain to explain the likes of synthetic collateralized debt obligations and subprime bundling. Davidson helped put the words in their mouths. The movie was based on the book by Michael Lewis.
“(Director) Adam McKay was working on the script for The Big Short and quickly found himself struggling, as I think all of us did, with understanding what subprime bundling was that was so central to the financial crisis,” said Davidson. “He wanted to better understand the broad world of Wall Street, but also how a crisis on Wall Street could have such a devastating impact on people around the country and the world.”
Davidson got the call to unwind those complexities and soon found himself explaining credit default swaps to the film’s stars: Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Steve Carrell.
The arc of Davidson’s presentation was during the Great Recession, when he produced a radio documentary on the housing crisis titled "The Giant Pool of Money." The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University named it one of the top 10 works of journalism of the decade. "The Giant Pool of Money" was widely recognized as the clearest and most entertaining explanation of the roots of the financial crisis in any media, Catalyst Corporate noted.
Davidson’s presentation will also cover the The Big Short, economic implications of the general election, and will land on an exploration of the emerging “Sharing Economy.”
In addition to Davidson’s presentation, Share Economy: The New Direction, other Economic Forum presentations include:
- Evan Koenig: An Outlook on the National Economy
- Randy Harrington: Big Dilemma: Accessibility vs. Security
- Ray Perryman: Energy's Influence on the Economy: Positive or Negative?
- Bill Hampel: Positioning Credit Unions for the New Economy
- Jack Uldrich: The Numbers That Matter
- Marci Rossell: Now What Do We Do?
The Economic Forum also features a daylong, deep dive of balance sheet strategies and insights provided by experts with Catalyst Corporate and Catalyst Strategic Solutions. The actionable information will be presented in two tracks – one for executives and one for directors and other credit union volunteers.
Details and registration information for this not-to-be-missed event are available at www.catalystcorp.org/r/forum.