Summary of Rana Foroohar's Makers and Takers argues that finance has become an increasingly dominant force in controlling the organization of the US economy. This has weakened American business and created growing inequality.
The argument against the growing power of finance capital is not an argument against capitalism itself. Rather, finance must be reined in so that capitalism can proceed efficiently. Healthy competition is undermined when banks and financial conglomerates trade in commodities, thereby competing with businesses rather than supplying them with capital. Financial industries have access to information and capital that gives them unfair advantages in the market.
Financial firms make profits by manipulating money and debt, rather than by producing goods or providing services. The financialization of the economy has led to a pursuit of short-term profits to pump up stock prices at the expense of needed…
