Fear and greed are terms that make light of the uncertainty in the finance world. Huge global financial institutions rely on emotional relations of trust and distrust to suppress the uncertainties. Many financial firms develop policies towards risk, rather than accepting the reality of an uncertain future. They amass data in the futile hope of gaining certainty and to claim their options are more 'risk-free' than competitors. Emotions in Finance examines the views of experienced elites in the international financial world. It argues the current financial era is driven by a utopianism - a hope - that the future can be collapsed into the present. It points out policy implications of this short-term view at the unstable peak of global finance. This book provides a timely account of the influence of emotion and speculation on the world's increasingly volatile financial sector.

The author includes absorbing interview material from public and private bankers in the United States, UK and Australia.