Clearly one of the toughest parts of this debate… who decides? And, further, what is the metric used?
For example, in aggregate, most of the mutual fund industry (and you could extend this to most of the entire asset management industry) doesn’t add much in the way of value other than providing liquidity (which certainly has value, although not as much as we collectively pay for it). That amounts to billions of dollars per year in fees where it “appears” that not much value is created. But that’s just dollars and cents… arguably the mere fact that someone is managing folks’ money (even if it’s not optimally managed) makes them “feel” better – it gives them a sense of hope and peace of mind. What is this worth? I really don’t know how much “psychic income” this provides… but it’s certainly worth something.
