[appleiigs]

You're mixed up here and so are many other HN comments about finance. Banks and markets are the middle men. They move the money around. If money happens to flow into investment pools, the money doesn't go there to die. Those pools in turn invest into things such as car part manufacturers. We need these middle men to make the money flow easier and more efficient.

The place that wealth gets destroyed is at the investment level (in your definition is the economy). At my previous company, they spent billions on plants and they very often sit idle... like 95% idle. That is where the wealth dies.

Google moving the money around from one pool to another doesn't destroy value. Google laying optical fiber down then abandoning it does destroy value.