Financialization can be good for consumers in the right context. Being a cutting edge processor company is not one of them, though. But there are plenty of pro

Financialization can be good for consumers in the right context. Being a cutting edge processor company is not one of them, though. But there are plenty of products that become "perfected" over time, and investing into R&D can just be wasteful and raise the breakeven price of the product, thus raising cost to consumers. It's true that a company could strive to become a conglomerate and in theory get higher returns on new R&D, but it's been proven that conglomerates often lose focus and are harder to carry into perpetuity. Generally conglomerates that spin off focused companies create more overall value. Though depends how you define financialization of course. In this context I just mean cost cutting, being strategic about lowering marginal costs. Excessive dividends or buybacks don't tend to be good for consumers. In some cases they can lower the cost of capital for a business this allow more cost efficient financing though.