According to the FT (January 15, 2014) Goldman Sachs received 17,000 applications for its 2014 intake of analysts and recruited 330. The industry is still hugely attractive to new recruits despite the public backlash from the 2008 financial crisis bailouts and the bonus excess.

During filming for my short documentary on the psychology of traders, Jean-Claude Noel, an executive coach at the global business school INSEAD, talked about the "entitlement" culture in finance. He explained this behavior as "projection," when bankers and traders face their many wealthy clients day after day they start to believe that they are entitled to the same riches. He said he sees exactly the same behavior in the art collecting world - though of course the consequences here are not so dangerous for the rest of the economy.

I also talked with Rodolfo Llinas, professor of neuroscience at New York University about this behavior. He said we are hard wired to be dazzled by money, the trappings of wealth, and the association with power. In passing, he brought my attention to this delightful video below from the world of birds: the bower bird building his seduction parlor.