Financialization and the Shrinking Investment Horizon

"Between 1980 and 2006, finance replaced manufacturing as the driving force of the American economy.  The banking and investment business expanded from 12 to 20 percent of the country's GDP, and its share of total corporate profits rose from 20 to 45 percent.  Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector shrunk from 21 to 12 percent, and its share of profits dropped from 45 to 5%.

"Some modest rise in the importance of finance was to be expected.  As the United States prospered, it would naturally devote more of its resources and attention to the management of its citizens' accumulated wealth.  But in the age of Reagan, the financial sector was dramatically transformed from mainly providing investment to enterprises that produced goods and services to diverting credit to unproductive short-term speculation on the price of assets.  As this transformation occurred, the U.S. business culture's concept of economic time dramatically shrunk, and in many places the future just disappeared."

The Servant Economy by Jeff Faux