[mikem170]

How much rent seeking and regulatory capture that goes on is enabled by modern finance?

What about bailouts for financial institutions that are too big to fail - the idea of privatizing the profits and socializing the losses?

Real wages are down and income inequality is up over the last several decades, coinciding with a lot of growth in the finance industry. Subprime and payday loans, 30 year mortgages backed by the government, leveraged buyouts, stock buybacks, tax havens, etc. Private and public debt levels are way higher than at any time prior to WWII. Right from the age of 18 we have kids signing large student loans, the banks don't care about their risk since the loans are federally backed and will follow these kids until the day they die.

A lot of people feel that the general public is being squeezed by financiers. Are they wrong?