activities that consume little or no physical resources - information, banking, service sector etc.

there's another side to that, though, because those 'activities' subsidise and finance the most destructive 'other' activities, whose additions to the GDP are rife with profits that will have to be paid for later, and steal from the commons.

obviously the tool of finance is not inherently the problem, ot Jerome would not have pulled off such a mighty achievement recently, but this tool is being so seriously misused right now, it has become such an accomplice to so much of what is wrong around us, and case like Jerome's are the exception.

great diary, Jake, very clear, organised, and accessible writing, thanks.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty