The U.S. Financial Sector's Value Added

The "value added" of the financial sector measures the value of the services
provided by this sector to the overall economy. We see a strong, sustained
increase in the contribution of the financial sector's value added as the
most noticeable postwar trend in the ratio of the financial sector's to the
nonfinancial sector's value added. This ratio changed from 1/20 in 1952 to
1/6 around its peak in 2006.

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