by LUKE JOHNSON
A wise fellow recently gave me his explanation for the financial crisis: too many highly intelligent graduates went to work in the investment banks on Wall Street and in the City. I know what he means: such characters were too clever by half, pushing securitisation, derivatives, swaps and a plethora of financial instruments to such excess that they almost destroyed capitalism.
All that concentrated brainpower focused on one thing: making as much money as they could as quickly as possible. The legions of high-flyers with PhDs and MBAs queueing up to get jobs in financial markets had worked out a basic truth: the closer you are to the money, the easier it is to get rich.
Financial Times for more
(Thanks to reader)