digby today

Our current economic system is neither natural nor value neutral. It wildly overcompensates the financialized "labor" of those at the top of the chain--much of which has little value to society--while dramatically undercompensating the real, necessary work of the people who build, teach, manage, maintain, clean, and service things and other people. If derivatives trading were banned tomorrow, most people would barely notice the difference. Meanwhile, the lives of real people might well be vastly improved by transaction taxes, tighter controls on vulture capital, and other efforts to undo the financialization of the economy and incentivize the world's best and brightest to enter fields less dedicated to the distasteful and counterproductive task of helping ludicrously overpaid rent seekers extract even greater rates of return on investment.

digby is a national treasure. I'm thankful every day for her smarts and her vigilance.