Honors Thesis Plumbs Meltdown

A Harvard honors thesis on the Wall Street meltdown is a source for an important new book on the subject.

The summa cum laude thesis in economics written by A.K. Barnett-Hart ’09 was a useful source for Michael Lewis's just-published book The Big Short,  on the Wall Street meltdown and ensuing recession, according to Peter Lattman's "Deal Journal,"  a Wall Street Journal  blog. Lewis, the author of Liar's Poker, Moneyball,  and The Blind Side, lauds Barnett-Hart's thesis, handed in just a year ago, in his acknowledgments section, asserting that it "remains more interesting than any single piece of Wall Street research on the subject." Titled "The Story of the CDO [collateralized debt obligations] Market Meltdown: An Empirical Analysis," Barnett-Hart's thesis also won a Harvard Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work. 



You might also like

Is the Constitution Broken?

Harvard legal scholars debate the state of our founding national document.

Harvard Panel Debunks the Population Implosion Myth

Public health professors parse the evidence surrounding falling U.S. birth rates.

Harvard Economist Nicole Maestas on Aging and Health Policy

The Harvard health economist not afraid to get in the weeds

Most popular

Two Years of Doxxing at Harvard

What happens when students are publicly named and shamed for their views?

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Explore More From Current Issue

People sit in lawn chairs near a rustic barn at Cider Garden in New Salem on a sunny day.

Ciderdays Festival Celebrates All Things Apple

Visiting small-batch cideries and orchards in Massachusetts

Public health dean Andrea Baccarelli wearing a white collared shirt and glasses.

The School of Public Health, Facing a Financial Reckoning, Seizes the Chance to Reinvent Itself

Dean Andrea Baccarelli plans for a smaller, more impactful Chan School of 2030.

Colorful illustration of woman multitasking with laptop, baby bottle, toy, and checklist.

Motherhood and Ambition in a Pronatalist World

Gen Z is confronting the age-old question of balance—with a new twist.