Collectively, people think and act in ways very different from how they think and act as individuals. Author Bonner has long been a maverick observer of the financial and political world, sharpening his sardonic wit, in particular, on the vagaries of the investing public. Market booms and busts, tulip manias and dotcom bubbles, venture capitalists and vulture funds, he lets you know, are best explained not by dry statistics and obscure theories but by the metaphors and analogies of literature. Here, Bonner and freelance journalist Rajiva use literary economics to offer broader insights into mass behavior and its devastating effects on society. They end by giving concrete advice on how readers can avoid what the authors call the 'public spectacle' of modern finance, and become, instead, 'private' investors--knowing their own mind and following their own intuitions.--From publisher description.