Introduction

Abstract

Not since the Great Depression have Wall Street and Main Street been so gripped in fear. The lives of those who lived through the Great Depression in the 1930s were forever changed. Only two generations of almost unbroken prosperity since the 1960s have allowed us to shake the fear of loss created by the pain of the Great Depression. Fear and despair have returned. This is a book about the fear that drives troubled economies. I also explore how fear is manipulated, in politics and in financial markets, to benefit hundreds but cost billions.