The Bondfire of the Insanities

The Conflagration Goes Global

In October 1987, right around the time of the great Black Monday crash, a novel by Tom Wolfe was published called The Bonfire of the Vanities. Wikipedia describes it as “a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City.” Coincidentally, it was turned into a movie and released during the next bear market — the S&L crisis of 1990. The movie features Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, a successful waspy dirtbag Master-of-the-Universe bond trader who lives in his $3mn Park Avenue co-op while his wife (played by Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City fame) fritters away his massive income in what McCoy calls a “hemorrhaging of money.” The movie isn’t great — if you haven’t heard of it, there’s probably a reason — but I’m sure you can look up the plot to get the gist of what happens if you’re curious.

I found myself thinking back to the movie because it features A) a miserable bond trader near the start of a 40-year one-way market in fixed income; B) profligate characters hemorrhaging money; and C) greedy bad decisions being made all over the place. Of course, I also love the name.

Now let me tell you another story. This one is written by a shadowy Cloudbear avatar and is called The Bondfire of the Insanities. This story also features miserable bond traders near the start of a 40-year one-way market in fixed income, profligate characters hemorrhaging money, and greedy bad decisions being made all over the place. It is set in a place called Everywhere.