What Austen, Trollope and The Simpsons Can Teach Us About Finance

Guest: Mihir Desai, PhD, Professor, Harvard Business School; Professor, Harvard Law School, Author, “The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return” You don't have to have seen the 1987 film Wall Street to know the famous quote from the show’s villainous corporate raider, Gordon Gecko: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” With Hollywood depictions like that, is it any wonder people think the financial world is morally bankrupt? Harvard Business School finance professor Mihir Desai says even people who work in the field struggle with that perception. But Desai says that’s getting the industry all wrong. His new book, “The Wisdom of Finance” uses examples from history, humanities and Hollywood to show how the underlying principles of finance are not immoral, at all. In fact, they make the world a better place. Click here for more information about the Wisdom of Finance video contest for high school students running now.