Certain Sips: The Weekend Brew

Five Hot Minutes 🥤 March 29, 2025

A weekly cultural and political brief—Certain Sips: the Weekend Brew

Earlier this month Swedish buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) loan provider Klarna raised eyebrows when it announced an upcoming IPO and partnership with food delivery company DoorDash. Late-stage capitalism has brought about an abundance of increasingly innovative horrors, but at a certain point you just have to sit back and appreciate the absurd audacity of offering subprime, adjustable-rate loans to fund the delivery of a fast food “value meal” from a self-driven car.

For my part, I still visit the fast food eateries in person. Of course I drive through whenever possible (I’m not a monster), and while I appreciated my iPhone listening to my conversation and offering unsolicited directions to Wendy’s when I got off work last night, I can assure you that was not necessary. I know how to get to Wendy’s.

Publisher’s Note: the correct beverage choice is a Frosty, not a Coke. Why are you even at Wendy’s if you don’t order a Frosty?

Good Eating

The underlying economics that make possible a Wendy’s $7 Biggie Bag meal deal may not rest on the same cataclysmic overexposure that wrecked the entire financial system in 2007-08, but I have no doubt the environmental impacts from this kind of purchase—over time and at scale—are driving our planet into unlivable oblivion. We will all pay for our sins.

Yet as I try to get ahead and save for retirement, a guilty part of me keeps going back for this unbeatable deal. In the beautiful but largely priced-in state of California in 2025, the combo of a half-decent junior bacon cheeseburger, nuggets, fries and a frosty for $7 and change is simply too good to pass up. So who am I to judge if you use DoorDash to have your Wendy’s delivered? And if you take out a loan to pay for that order, more power to you!

At least, that’s what Wall Street says. Today marketwatch.com mused, “Are bonds based on burrito orders next after the Klarna and DoorDash partnership?”

“Wall Street is hungry for bonds backed by a welter of unconventional cash flows. Bond desks have already securitized revenue from data centers, student loans and fast-food franchise payments. Now, your lunch order might be next.

Manish Singh, chief investment officer at Crossbridge Capital Group in London, pointed out that bonds backed by BNPL loans could prove especially risky. The latest data from the New York Federal Reserve showed that delinquency rates on subprime auto loans and credit-card balances remained elevated during the fourth quarter of 2024. ‘And if consumers are so tapped out that they need to resort to buying their lunch on layaway, that alone should raise questions about their ability to pay,’ Singh noted.”

While I trust reassurances that the unique factors enabling the 2007-08 meltdown have not been fully replicated in our current environment, I can never read words like elevated delinquency rates and unconventionally backed securitized revenue the same again. For this internalized impulse of historically-informed alarm, I have two phenomenal—and phenomenally different—films to thank: 2015’s The Big Short and 2011’s Margin Call.

Good Viewing

This past week I rewatched Adam McKay’s huge 2015 adaptation of the Michael Lewis 2010 book about the financial collapse told through the stories of the handful of investors who bet against a system they determined was bound to fail. The Big Short earned more than $133 Million at the box office (on a $50 Million budget) and numerous awards, including two Oscars. It’s also hysterically funny.

I remember being entertained when I saw it in theaters, but I forgot how humorously the film’s stories are told. I cackled repeatedly upon rewatching The Big Short, tickled by its stacked cast which includes Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Gosling, and a pre-Succession Jeremy Strong. The film also utilizes—as themselves—Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and Richard Thaler. Plus Anthony Bourdain.

This was supposed to be a joke.

More Good Viewing

Equally compelling but not at all humorous in its depiction of the financial meltdown, Margin Call also boasts an all-time great cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Mary McDonnell, and Simon Baker. Whereas The Big Short depicts years of plotting from several disparate groups of investors, Margin Call ticks away 24 brutal hours inside a single, elite Wall Street firm at the moment of truth.

First-time Director J. C. Chandor earned Academy Award nominations and won several other writing and directing awards. For a small film with a $3.5 Million budget, Margin Call performed better in relative terms ($19.5 Million) than The Big Short: a return on investment (ROI) any hedge fund manager would be proud to share with their investors.

Both of these movies are must-see, not only for their stylistic dynamism and incredible acting, but for the more comprehensive lessons they teach about Wall Street and human nature. If you haven’t seen either of them, you’re in for a treat. Or if you have but—like me—it’s been a decade, now’s a great time to revisit these gems.

Two GOATs, one frame.

President Trump seems almost determined to blow up the economy, a strategy designed to drive destitute Americans into fascism’s open arms. The stock market is not the economy, but 2007-08 reminds us it’s an important part of it. And in a profoundly risky move, this week Trump’s FDIC quietly encouraged investment banks to take on hyperspeculative crypto assets without prior approval. Whether it’s overexposure to Bitcoin or Burrito Bonds that drives the next financial crisis, we’ll have to wait and see. But it’s only a matter of time.

Have a beautiful weekend, old sport. See you next time.

ICYMI, check out these related posts:

---

---

---