Morgan Stanley Blames 'The Big Short' For Investor Wariness On Subprime Auto Bonds

This is really just too delicious. After the banking industry got greedy, packaged (and repackaged, and repackaged) crappy subprime mortgages, got hosed by their greed, and got bailed out, they are now pointing the finger to Hollywood for investor wariness surrounding their new hot ticket item: subprime auto bonds.

This week, analysts at Morgan Stanley cited "The Big Short" — Adam McKay‘s wildly entertaining look at the 2008 housing bubble, which took the banking industry thoroughly to task for pursuing profit at all costs — as one of the possible reasons folks might be resistant to these latest Asset-Backed Securities. Here’s what the financial services firm had to say (via Bloomberg):

However, concerns about growing recessionary risks – and perhaps even the popularity of the recent movie The Big Short – have motivated investors to investigate any potential source of weakness. Consumer sectors that involve large initial outlays, such as housing and autos, provide a natural place to start. Combine that with recent headlines from Fitch suggesting that delinquencies in some sectors of the auto ABS market have reached 20- year highs, and you get a target sector for investors’ concerns.

Those concerns are not without merit, at least as far as delinquencies are concerned. It is interesting to highlight that as the housing market continues to heal from its post-crisis depths, mortgage delinquencies have been on a steady decline while auto delinquencies have been going in the opposite direction.

It’s astounding to watch Morgan Stanley walk so deftly around their own failures. And it’s easier to blame Hollywood I suppose that acknowledge that your subprime auto loans might not be so different than the subprime mortgages that were sold, and facing the same kind of precipitous pattern. But that the film is rattling anyone on Wall Street, even just a bit, is about as good a coda as you could ask for.