Why Aren’t They Shouting?: A Banker’s Tale of Change, Computers and Perpetual Crisis

‘Eloquent, entertaining and accessible.’ FT Adviser

When Kevin Rodgers embarked on his career in finance, dealing rooms were filled with clamouring traders and gesticulating salesmen. Nearly three decades later, the bustle has gone and the loudest noise you’re likely to hear is the gentle tapping of keyboards.

Why Aren’t They Shouting? is one banker’s chronicle of this silent revolution, taking us from an age of shouted phone calls and alpha males right up to today’s world of computer geeks and complex derivatives. Along the way, Rodgers offers a masterclass in how modern banking actually works, exploring the seismic changes to the global financial industry over the last thirty years. Above all, his story raises a deeply troubling question: could it be that the technology that has transformed banking – and that continues to do so – is actually making it ever more unstable?



‘A welcome addition to the panoply of must-read titles about banking before, during and after the crisis … by someone who was actually at the centre of the industry at the time.’ Euromoney

‘An animated first-person narrative about the reality of banking … lively and engaging.’ LSE Review of Books