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In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, NOVA presents Mind Over Money—an entertaining and penetrating exploration of why mainstream economists failed to predict the crash of 2008 and why we so often make irrational financial decisions. This film reveals surprising, hidden money drives in us all and explores controversial new arguments about the world of finance. Before the current crash, most Wall Street analysts believed that markets are “efficient”—that investors are reasonable and always operate in their own self-interest. Most of the time, these assumptions of classical economics work well enough. But in the face of the recent crash, a new science that aims to incorporate human psychology into finance—behavioral economics—does a better job in explaining why people panic in extreme financial situations. Through entertaining real-life experiments, NOVA shows how mood, decision-making, and economic activity are all tightly interwoven. By delivering unexpected insights from leading analysts and powerful experiments, this original documentary exposes the mysterious and surprising nature of the two most powerful forces on our planet: the human mind and money.

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