Wall Street, symbol of investment banking and the stock exchange.

The history of Wall Street institutions reveals a pattern of overconfident exploitation of financial advantages, followed by unexpected setbacks and investor panic. The pattern has characteristics in common with progress traps, most notably the ability of financiers to pursue their activities in a culture that is insulated from the world that lies beyond commerce. As it happens, that world is greatly affected by high finance, but financiers are not aware of their effect until panic has set in.