Another cost, harder to measure, was the influence
all this money exerted, not just on the political process but on
people’s decisions about what to do with their lives. The more
money to be made gaming the financial markets, the more peo-
ple would decide they were put on earth to game the financial
markets — and create romantic narratives to explain to themselves
why a life spent gaming the financial markets is a purposeful life.
And then there is maybe the greatest cost of all: Once very smart
people are paid huge sums of money to exploit the flaws in the
financial system, they have the spectacularly destructive incen-
tive to screw the system up further, or to remain silent as they
watch it being screwed up by others.