Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, financial firms really serve as middlemen. Think of - let's look at something outside of finance - think of a real estate agent or an auto broker. What they do is they match up buyers and sellers. Yes, you could go out, for example, and look at a house on your own, but it's going to be much more efficient if you have a real estate agent whose full-time job is to find houses. Well, think of someone in the financial industry as bringing people who have money to loan together with people who need to borrow money. Think, for example, of all the inventors out there, all the innovators out there who have great ideas . . . they just don't have the money to finance them. Well, this is where you see the benefit of financing. A bank or maybe a venture capitalist will gather the money together, will get that money, perhaps, from people like you and me, who are saving for our retirement. They will get that money together, and they'll match it up to that inventor, than innovator, and hopefully there's a good product down the road. I think sometimes we devalue too much what we'll call these middlemen or middlewomen, the people who bring parties together. They do serve a vital function in our economy."