Ten years ago, the writer Sebastian Faulks published a novel that helped cement the popular image of hedge funds. His bestseller, A Week in December, featured a loathsome hedge fund manager, John Veals, who, motivated by pure greed, plots to bring down a thinly disguised version of RBS, the UK bank, wreaking untold damage on the economy.
A pantomime villain, Veals has no redeeming features, no interest in anything other than making money and certainly no concerns about the impact of his actions on the society in which he lives.
