"The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" by Michael Lewis (2010)

Virtuous behaviour is shaped by circumstances as much as by personal integrity. The economic regime and corporate cultures determine which personal qualities thrive. Even if the economic regime exalts personal wealth, the diversity of corporate cultures enables one to choose whether to amass this wealth by improving the world or by seeking rents. Rent-seeking carries a pecuniary compensating differential. Indeed, the downside of a hired trader's risk seems lower than that of an entrepreneur, and the upside seems higher; yet entrepreneurs persist.

An ideal salesman increases his customer's valuation for the product. An artful salesman deceives. In order to deceive the rich, a salesman will benefit from being bred among the rich. Hence the rents in sales.

The thesis that prices of securities would or should reflect the fundamentals is not immediate. Securities can serve as fiat money. Market participants' agreement on the price of a security is more stabilising than proximity to any particular price of that security.