High finance is all about ‘sentiment’, we are told – but there’s no room for real sentiment when hiccups ripple down to us little people

You won’t be asked how you feel about a life-changing hike in interest rates

Real-life effects: A security guard monitors a line of people outside a Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California as customers line up to try to retrieve their funds from the failed bank. Photo: Getty

Jim O'Brien

I never cease to be amazed at the role ‘sentiment’ plays in the world of high finance. It is a world dominated by testosterone-laden brain-boxes who move billions around the financial system the way the rest of us mortals move cornflakes around in our breakfast bowls.