In contrast, in my job as a financial advisor at JFG I get to hear success stories every day of small business owners who came from nothing and are now helping their grandchildren go to college or giving back by mentoring young people in their field. I don’t see how anyone can have faith in a system that puts so little value on individual freedom and opportunity. One of the fascinating but horrifying things to me about the history of Russia as so well told in A Gentleman in Moscow is the subordination of the individual to an ideology. Inally, for those of you justifiably but perhaps overly concerned about our financial system and political climate in light of the stress in the banking system, I ask you to take a moment and think about what you love about this country and why I believe it is a great place to invest, start a business, and raise a family. As you can see in Figure 1 below, Treasury volatility measured by the MOVE index has eclipsed that of the VIX over the past year and is far closer to its GFC peak than the VIX. This index, called the MOVE index, measures volatility in the Treasury market. It occurred to me that if author Robert Harris was writing his novel today, he might need to abandon his references to the VIX and replace them with the index that measures bond market volatility. In the novel, a brilliant scientist creates a super-computer using artificial intelligence which trades after analyzing market behavior and news stories, often predicting and capitalizing on the fear that comes from financial panics. Investors often cite the VIX when assessing risk, or fear, among stock investors.

That book, written in the wake of the GFC, takes its title from the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, which measures volatility in the S&P 500. This rude awakening from my vacation gave me cause to recall a different novel that I read way back in 2011 called The Fear Index.

Books like a gentleman in moscow