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Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, envisioned the financial system as a helpmate to business: banks would take our savings and invest it in productive new enterprises that would in turn create jobs and prosperity for society as a whole. But deep academic research shows that today only 15 percent of all the money flowing through US financial institutions actually ends up on Main Street. The rest exists in a closed loop of trading, speculation, and “financialization” that is undermining growth, increasing inequality, and leading to extreme politics. What’s gone wrong in our financial system? And how can we fix it? Rana Foroohar, Time columnist and author of Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business, and Financial Times US Editor Gillian Tett, author of The Silo Effect, discuss the topic. (Book signing to follow.)
- 2016 Festival
- Economy
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Economy
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