Science:
During the 1990s, physicists flocked to Wall Street and other
financial hubs, eager to turn their analytical skills and
phenomenological mindset to the problem of making a killing.
Now that the world's stock markets are in retreat, they've
turned to explaining why markets crash. According to one new
analysis, leverageâmdash;the practice by hedge
funds and other investors of borrowing money to buy
investmentsâmdash;is the root of many
nettlesome properties of financial markets that classical
economics cannot explain, including a propensity to crash.
