Bankers & Consultants driving the UK economy

No, really! Latest figures show that "Financial Services" are now responsible for 30.2% of the wealth in the in UK GDP. In this category are bankers, insurers, fund managers, market researchers, and management consultants. A nation of powerpoint slide-writers! Some other interesting stats: - Computer services worth 2.24 billion pounds, up 354% since 1992. - In same period, Insurance and pension funds up 220% - Market research and management consulting output has grown from 4.7 billion to 11.3 billion pounds since 1992. - Britain's "creative sector" is now 9.2% of the economy. - 9 out of 10 slowest growing (or, shrinking) industries are in manufaturing The same figures show that manufacturing is now contributing just 14.2%, and agriculture just 1%. It would seem amazing, then, that modern economies, and just about the entire G7 are guilty here, spend so much money subsidizing agriculture when it has such a negligible effect on national wealth. It would also seem amazing that the mainstream media in these countries dedicate so much space to talking about manufacturing when it's clearly shrinking so much every year to now become a relatively minor part of GDP. One would think that government subsidies and media attention should rather focus on the fast-growing sectors- how do we create better bankers, consultants, and so on, rather than keeping old and dying industries on life-support at enormous cost. Link: Telegraph | Money | Engine room that powers British economy.

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