Are we barreling toward another massive global financial catastrophe? How can so many bubbles form all at once? Why are so many disconnected markets now capable of collapsing in unison? In this remarkably listenable book, award-winning Financial Times columnist John Authers takes on these critical questions and offers deeply sobering answers.

Authers reveals how the first truly global super bubble was inflated - and might now be inflating again. He illuminates the multiple roots of repeated financial crises: a massive shift in investing power from individuals to big institutions; the migration of key decisions from banks to capital markets; the wholesale financialization of many asset classes; and fundamental failures of both theory and policy.

The Fearful Rise of Markets presents a truly global view, avoiding oversimplifications and ideology as it outlines how we got here and where we stand. Even more valuable, it offers realistic solutions - for decision-makers who want to prevent disaster and investors who want to survive it. Topics include:

• The herd grows ever larger - and more dangerous
• How institutional investing, indexing, and efficient markets theory promote herding
• Cheap money and irrational exuberance
• Super fuel for super bubbles
• Too big to fail: the whole story of moral hazard
• Banks, hedge funds, and beyond
• Danger signs of the next bubble
• Forex, equity, credit, and commodity markets move once more in alignment