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Faith-Based Finance
Article

Faith-Based Finance

How Wall Street Became a Cult of Risk


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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Eloquent
  • Hot Topic
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Words and their meanings matter. Financial journalist Gillian Tett provides a well-structured and thoughtful analysis into the origins of the words “finance,” “credit” and “bank” as they relate to the causes of the Great Recession. She persuasively argues that financiers developed an inflated view of the goods they were offering in their increasingly complicated world, in which finance had become an end in itself rather than the means to an end. Executives, analysts and students of finance will find these economic musings important food for thought.

Take-Aways

  • To understand the Great Recession, look to the original meanings of the words “finance,” “credit” and “bank.”
  • Derived from the French finer, “to end,” finance was once just a way to achieve a goal.
  • The financial system is based on credit – trust – and when that faith began to crumble, the market collapsed. 

About the Author

Gillian Tett is US editor-at-large for the Financial Times


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