"Six years after the financial crisis, bankers and other Wall Street types remain villains in the public mind. The standard critique says that they wrecked the economy and destroyed people's savings, and never adequately paid for their crimes. But as Economist editor Andrew Palmer reveals in Smart Money, this detested industry is not only capable of doing great good for society, but offers the most powerful means we have for solving some of our most intractable social problems. Drawing on interviews with leading financiers and a new breed of financial entrepreneurs, Palmer provides a sweeping account of the history, present, and future of financial innovation, arguing that we need it more today than ever before"--