Dave Davies

I mean, it is what keeps business and commerce moving.

We need it to function.

And yet it is run by individual economic actors maximizing their profits and acting in their own interest, right?

We need to take another break here.

Let me reintroduce you.

We are speaking with Andrew Ross Sorkin.

He's a financial columnist for The New York Times.

His new book is 1929, Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation.

He'll be back to talk more after this short break.

I'm Dave Davies, and this is Fresh Air.

The separation of investment banking from commercial banking so you wouldn't be using your depositors' money to gamble, I mean, that was essentially repealed in a bill signed by Bill Clinton in 1999 and probably contributed to the 2008 crisis.

A lot of economists and academics and business writers are saying that now –

There are some pretty scary signs out there.

We see a roaring stock market but underlying trends that maybe could threaten another crash.

I mean the things that people cite a lot are a lot of optimistic spending based on the assumption that artificial intelligence will transform businesses.

We're seeing these huge data centers go up around the country.

Increasing use of cryptocurrency particularly now that it has been embraced by Donald Trump.

And then the growing influence of these shadow banks.

I don't quite get this.

These are financial firms that can finance a lot of stuff but operate outside the regulated banking system, right?