# Professor Thomas Philippon's research on the financial services industry is cited

1 Faculty News July 13, 2015 ![Salon logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/salon-logo.jpg?itok=bcLmPlsV)>

Excerpt from [Salon](http://www.salon.com/2015/07/13/the_shocking_way_wall_street_endangers_america_while_washington_looks_the_other_way/) -- "NYU economist [Thomas Philippon](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/thomas-philippon) finds that we now pay much more for financial middlemen than we should, despite dramatic technological advances, and that drains about $280 billion annually out of the economy. This is profit from rent seeking activity. Using a market price/earnings factor of 15.5 (a commonly used multiple that converts annual profit into market value of equity), the implied size of this financial rent-seeking business in terms of share value is more than $4 trillion, larger than the 15 largest non-financial firms in the United States and more than 15 percent of aggregate market capitalization of U.S. businesses."

[Read more](http://www.salon.com/2015/07/13/the_shocking_way_wall_street_endangers_america_while_washington_looks_the_other_way/)