Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What value does a financial sector add to society? How would society function without a financial sector?
In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen make the case that a competitive market financial sector is crucial to economic growth and the betterment of society.
Jonathan and Jules contend with the critiques they hear most often when it comes to free markets, breaking down the core purpose of a financial sector and why its value is not easily observable or necessarily fair. They also compare and contrast other financial systems, like command-and-control, and explain why those systems tend to fail.
Submit your questions to the show here: bit.ly/AllElseEqual
Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/allelse/
What value does a financial sector add to society? How would society function without a financial sector?
In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen make the case that a competitive market financial sector is crucial to economic growth and the betterment of society.
Jonathan and Jules contend with the critiques they hear most often when it comes to free markets, breaking down the core purpose of a financial sector and why its value is not easily observable or necessarily fair. They also compare and contrast other financial systems, like command-and-control, and explain why those systems tend to fail.
Submit your questions to the show here: bit.ly/AllElseEqual
Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/allelse/
