The Four Plotlines In Every Book About the Financial Industry

I love a good piece of curation and this article from financial expert Barry Ritholtz is exactly that. In it, he suggests that nearly every book written about the financial industry employs one of only four different storylines: Greed Blinded by Arrogance, Everything You Believe Is Wrong, Green Leading to Fraud and Michael Lewis Books.

Ok, the fourth category is a pretty lazy choice, but the other three are interesting themes that do indeed seem to emerge in many books about banking and finance. It’s telling that two of his four categories also center on greed, which is a fundamental motivator in both the stories that are presented as successes and those that are cast as failures.

That fact, in itself, deserves more attention. Greed, once clearly seen as a “vice,” is too often recast today as a noble pursuit. That’s where inequality starts.