The Financial Tumor

Beginning in 1980, compensation in the financial sector began to rise out of proportion to every other sector of the economy, with a growth rate that continues to this day, according to Simon Johnson in the Atlantic. Financial sector profits have spiked up to nearly 50% of total corporate profits in the US, with abnormal growth over the same period:
This is a telling point: a larger and larger share of the gains have been captured by the people moving capital around, rather than those actually making or organizing things. Johnson's larger argument is that finance has not only taken over business, it has taken over the government, and nothing is being done to put the genie back in the bottle.

(via TPM)