What Good Is Wall Street?

Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless. “I asked him how he and his co-workers felt about making loads of money when much of the country was struggling. ‘A lot of people don’t care about it or think about it,’ he replied. ‘They say, it’s a market, it’s still open, and I’ll sell my labor for as much as I can until nobody wants to buy it.’ But you, I asked, what do you think? ‘I tend to think we do create value,’ he said. ‘It’s not a productive value in a very visible sense, like finding a cure for cancer. We’re middlemen. We bring together two sides of a deal. That’s not a very elevated thing, but I can’t think of any elevated economy that doesn’t need middlemen.'”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 22, 2010
Length: 31 minutes (7,987 words)

The Volcker Rule

Obama’s economic adviser and his battles over the financial-reform bill.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jul 26, 2010
Length: 22 minutes (5,605 words)

No Credit

Timothy Geithner’s financial plan is working—and making him very unpopular.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Mar 15, 2010
Length: 22 minutes (5,648 words)

Rational Irrationality

The real reason that capitalism is so crash-prone

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 5, 2009
Length: 19 minutes (4,901 words)