"Economic growth and its many benefits, from higher standards of living to higher levels of education, is made possible by connecting great ideas with capital — entrepreneurship is the engine of capitalism." Well, yes, if you are living in Asia. In the US and Europe, the financial profession has for some time now abandoned the idea of "connecting great ideas with capital", because that's not where the fast bucks are. The fast bucks are to be found in money laundering, arbitrage, derivatives, and other schemes that are purely parasitical, and the parasite is killing the host.