[gumby]

Finance is a service job (like lawyers, gardeners, doctors, haircutters, etc). The fact that money is attached gives them disproportional adulation and influence. Their useful function is making sure there is liquidity and availability of capital for companies and households to function, just like gardeners keep the weeds, down and help make the flowers flourish.

The celebrity obsession with CEOs mostly gets in the way of them doing their jobs, but the job at least is part of making something happen. Hired gun CEOs can do a lot for a company, but the pay is probably out of whack there too.