Summary
Traders and finance: Daniel Beunza - Associate Professor in the Cass Business School at City, University of London, talks to Laurie Taylor about his study of a Wall Street derivatives-trading room. In particular, he explores how the extensive use of financial models and trading technologies over recent decades has exerted a far-ranging influence on Wall Street , one which should alert us to the risks of moral disengagement caused by a dependence on ‘models’. Also, Anastasia Nesvetailova, Director of City Political Economy Research Centre at City, University of London , argues that financial malpractice is not an anomaly, but part of a business model of finance which involves the sabotaging of competitors, clients and even the state.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, it's five years since I last stepped inside a bank and a great deal longer since I had any respect for a figure who'd always |
| 0:45.0 | been held up to me in my childhood as the epitome of probity and good sense, the |
| 0:49.9 | bank manager. I still recall how nervous I was when at the age of 15 I went to see my local |
| 0:55.2 | Barclays manager to complain about the amount of interest he charged on my overdraft. |
| 1:00.0 | Well, Mr. Taylor, said the avuncular fellow luxuriating in his large picture-lined office, |
| 1:05.6 | you have to understand that Barked-is-Bank is not a Robin Hood organization. |
| 1:10.7 | It was a declaration that seemed to become more and more prescient as the years passed and previously stayed banks began to behave with all the apparent morals of an alley cat, an obsession with making money at all costs which reaches a parent climax with the |
| 1:25.6 | great financial crisis of 2008. |
| 1:30.9 | We're in the money. We're in the money. We're in the money. We've got a lot of what it takes to get along. |
| 1:42.0 | Where is it fair to blame the banking crisis on blatant greed on the sudden |
| 1:48.8 | disappearance of any sort of morality from people who had once been |
| 1:52.2 | respected for their relative prudence and honesty. |
| 1:55.6 | Well that's a question which prompted a fine new piece of research, which not only takes us behind |
| 2:00.4 | the scenes in a bank unit but also offers advice on how banking crises |
| 2:05.1 | might be averted in the future. That book is called Taking the Floor, Models, |
| 2:10.0 | Morals and Management in a Wall Street trading room. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.