Here is a comment I made to this post, in which the author, in making the case that "Robert Shiller Is Wrong," all the while accepts Shiller's false assertion that world was once graced by "virtuous" finance:
We would all love to go back to the world Shiller describes.
That statement accepts the false premise that Shiller's world once existed.
Accepting a false frame of a problem renders any subsequent disagreements about its solutions irrelevant as the frame defines the range of acceptable solutions.
Finance never has been and never will be "virtuous." Finance always has and always will be parasitic and, when abused, oppressive. Finance, like nuclear fission, can be put to productive use (instead of destructive use), but even when the short term result appears benign, you need to carefully consider the long term, malignant consequences.
