Innovation has also brought us runaway inflation in the cost of education and the cost of housing. My professors who went to school in the late 70’s would routinely talk about how they were able to pay their own way through school with part-time jobs. That is unthinkable today. No one gets out of school today without a mountain of debt.
And all of the zero-down loans to unqualified borrowers have caused the cost of housing to zoom. This inflation didn’t show up in Bush era because the ‘housing costs’ portion of the CPI was tied to equivalent rent.
So all of the financial innovation has led to massive salaries and bonuses on Wall Street with misery for everyone else.
If you want to fight the criminals on Wall Street, the following blogs routinely point out their shenanigans and suggest things you can do (such as calling/emailing political representatives and letting them know your views):
