Slaves to the Market: A Response to Bell and Hindmoor

Abstract

The 2008 financial crash has been explained in many ways. It has been seen as the result of both too much and too little regulation, a product of political interference with markets, or as evidence of what happens when controls on markets are removed. As Bell and Hindmoor note, this was the greatest financial crisis in the history of capitalism, and its causes and consequences will be debated for a long time to come. Their article provides a detailed account of the behaviour of bankers in the period before the financial crash, seeking to understand how the dynamics of the financial markets meant that far from being masers of the universe they became ‘slaves to the market’, victims of the structures they had done so much to create.