More on markets (also known as moron markets)

The academic textbooks talk about capital markets, not share markets, not stock markets, but capital markets.

London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong are huge watering holes where industry and commerce gather to gorge themselves on new forms of capital – cash to you and I.

They do so by issuing shares, or raising debt finance from the market.

And it is not just companies that tap the markets for cash - governments do it too.

They issue debt – known in the UK as gilts – to bankroll spending on projects such as new schools, hospitals and roads.

Hugo Dixon, the author of the Penguin Guide to Financerefers to the capital markets as 'buyers, sellers and a colourful cast of middlemen'.

So let's go behind the scenes. In this section we will look at:

• The players
• The middlemen
• Capital
• About the London Stock Exchange
• Playing Footsie
• How and why the Footsie moves

Next...The players