For example, a recent BIS paper found that a further increase in financial market activity – measured by share turnover – beyond a certain point no longer contributes to economic growth or may even inhibit growth.
But there is no need to be as pessimistic as the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, who, at the height of the financial crisis, was quoted as saying that the only useful financial innovation in the past few decades was the invention of the ATM.