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He highlights finance as one of the industries inevitably disrupted. I hope he's right but I have personally always viewed finance industry profits as a tax tha
by benreesman 16y ago
He highlights finance as one of the industries inevitably disrupted. I hope he's right but I have personally always viewed finance industry profits as a tax that cannot be avoided at any cost less than the cost of starting over. Is there hope that I'm mistaken?
- _delirium 16y agoOne possible example that already happened: The internet contributed to the more-or-less death of the traditional full-service stock broker in the late-90s, with the rise of electronic discount brokerages like E*Trade. I do agree that it's not clear it has or will in aggregate reduce the finance industry's take, though. More comprehensive disruption of the finance sector by technology would find a way to reduce finance's total cost, the way VOIP completely disrupted traditional telecoms. Finance firms seem remarkably adept at keeping the total take from falling overall, though, even when particular fees are forced downwards.
- hessenwolf 16y agoMuch of the mathematics of finance is actually as new as the internet. It has yet to be automated... Also, the mathematics of finance is still very, very much under development. Volatility of volatility model, anybody?
- tomjen3 16y agoIn some way we will always have a need for a system which allocates capital from those who wants to lend it to those who can convince others that they can make more money by lending it to them. Destroying this is neither possible nor desirable. But we can definitely destroy the part of finance where the government pays money to companies like Goldman sucks or try to bail out companies.