We all depend on the finance sector. But the vast majority of lending happens within the sector itself, not the outside world. So what is it all for? And why is it so profitable?

John Kay, a distinguished economist, argues that the industry's perceived profitability is partly illusory, and partly an appropriation of wealth created elsewhere - of other people's money. The financial sector, he shows, has grown too large, detached itself from ordinary business and everyday life, and has become an industry that mostly trades with itself, talks to itself, and judges itself by reference to standards which it has itself generated. And the outside world has itself adopted those standards, bailing out financial institutions that have failed all of us through greed and mismanagement.

In Other People's Money, John Kay shows, in his inimitable style, what has gone wrong in the dark heart of finance and what should be done about it.