Master of the Universe

In a vacant story of a Frankfurt bank building, a former investment banker by the name of Rainer Voss talks openly about the hypnotic daily practice of financial services, which sometimes earned him millions of dollars in a single day. Few questions were asked and the opportunities were limitless in capitalism’s golden decade of the 1980s, meaning that Voss and many other young traders could rise to giddy heights. Now 50 and redundant, he strolls, somewhat timidly, around the deserted trading floor and empty conference rooms. He looks back on those bygone days of megalomania like Gordon Gekko from returning to the scene of the crime. Voss thought he was a master of the universe, with his eight monitors and a button that he just had to click to impact events on the other side of the world. But that world became increasingly obscure, the consequences increasingly unpredictable, and in the end the bubble burst. Aside from his personal outpourings, Voss sheds light on the current economic situation in Europe, and he explains why banks are unlikely to change course or operate transparently. This is a unique and disheartening glimpse into a disconnected trade.