In current economic data, the growing wealth and income of the FIRE sector are added to GDP as economic growth, even though they in fact take the form of a steepening liability for households and businesses in the rest of the economy, leaving less income for consumption or productive investment. “This financialized overhead is not real growth,”... See more

In the 1950s, U.S. GDP was about equal to the value of assets. Today assets are valued at five times GDP. To keep those assets growing, more and more wealth is transferred upwards to the top 1 percent.

asset-price gains in the FIRE sector – Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate – far outpaced the gains (or shrinkage) in reported GDP.