by Jim Rickards, Daily Reckoning:
You’ve probably heard that the U.S. economy is heavily “financialized.” What does that really mean? What is financialization?
It’s a big topic and not very well defined. It can refer to the dominance of financial activity over traditional business activity in goods and services. It can refer to market bubbles. It can refer to the use of financial instruments in non-traditional arenas such as warfare or political witch hunts.