Small business is inconsistent with modern finance capitalism. This mom-and-pop small business model, painfully building up a loyal customer base while constantly competing with other family-owned shops is much praised and pointed to as an example by the right, but it has little to do with what modern capitalism is all about. In fact, they are as much a victim of finance capital are the small investors, consumers and the workers.

The model is no longer to develop a product or service, but to divorce oneself entirely from all markets except the financial market itself. Wealth is generated today by investment and loans, financial manipulation and "instruments". The idea is not to convert labor and raw materials into something useful that can produce even more wealth, but to dispense with all that tiresome merchandise altogether. Service economy indeed! Services, unlike things, wear out the moment they are paid for.

So let some bozo entrepreneur take the risks and do the work, you just keep your hands clean and borrow $ from Peter to lend it to Paul, and take your 10% right off the top. It sounds more legit than just setting up a press and printing the money, doesn't it?

As long as the market is growing, there will always be the promise of future investments to keep this Ponzi scheme constantly generating revenue, or at least, more money for new loans. This is why the constant pressure for "economic growth". The system has to have the assurance that tomorrow there will always be more cash available to pay for what we borrowed today. But nothing grows forever, does it? All it takes is one vital nutrient to run out before the entire ecology collapses.