Radio Free never takes money from corporate interests, which ensures our publications are in the interest of people, not profits. Radio Free provides free and open-source tools and resources for anyone to use to help better inform their communities. Learn more and get involved at radiofree.org

Image by Alexander Grey.

The size of the financial industry bears no relation to the economy. Self-mythological panegyrics aside, the finance industry confiscates money; it doesn’t create it. How much? Get out your calculators, and maybe you’ll have to find a way to add a couple of digits to what your screen can hold.

Perhaps the total amount of money extracted by financiers (or, more to the point, speculators) is not quite as large as Douglas Adams’ description of space in the, yes, increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers’ Trilogy, as “Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is.” But it’s close.

To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

If you are logged in but can't read CP+ articles, check the status of your access here

In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.

More

The post The Financial Industry is a Lot Bigger than a Giant Vampire Squid appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Pete Dolack.

Citations

[1]https://unsplash.com/@sharonmccutcheon[2]http://www.counterpunch.org/my-account/[3]https://www.counterpunch.org/subscribe/[4]https://www.counterpunch.org/my-account/members-area/[5]https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/18/the-financial-industry-is-a-lot-bigger-than-a-giant-vampire-squid/[6]https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/18/the-financial-industry-is-a-lot-bigger-than-a-giant-vampire-squid/[7]https://www.counterpunch.org/