Welcome to my blog. What it is about and why I am writing it.

In 1895, French author Gustave Le Bon released one of the most influential works on social psychology. "The Crowd" was more rhetoric and narrative than "scientific", but it was nonetheless the milestone in our analysis of mass human behaviour.

As members of a scientific or "information age" we would like to think that we've come along way from our irrational and ignorant origins. This is a fallacy. With the aid of computers and the scientific method our knowledge seems to be growing at an exponential rate, but the way we think and act as membesr of a collective has arguably changed very little at all.

My main interest is in financial markets. Not only are they the most organic and robust source of data on the flights and fancies of the collective human mind, but they also reflect the too infrequently challenged liberal belief that a market is the best way to allocate resources in a society.

Please feel free to comment, critique or in any way help me to augment this stream of consciousness. I'm on a journey of intellectual discovery here, and what better way to develop my developing views than by exposing them to criticism.

Most of my posts will either be personal musings or copies of emails and letters between colleagues in finance, policy and academia.

Enjoy