Early computers boosted finance far more than industrial productivity

Evidence

Back in the 1980s I remember a famous economist saying sarcastically that everywhere he looked he ‘saw’ the productivity gains brought on by computers – ‘everywhere’, he continued, ‘except in the productivity statistics’. He was right: just as the early generation of computers saved no paper, since we tended to print anything important out (often twice!), so too they did little to boost industrial output. But the computer did have an enormous impact on finance. It multiplied the complexity of financial instruments by hiding the ugliness within them. And it allowed for their frantic trading to accelerate almost to the speed of light. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 226

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘productivity gains everywhere except in the statistics’ quote plus the ‘computers saved no paper’ joke are sharable with tech-sector friends.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 226
• XREF: connects to: Early computer-investment effects on executive pay depend on business services — Ken-Hou Lin & Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Financialization and U.S. Income…, 138; Digital computing boosted circulation and exchange, not productive output. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 76; Computers multiplied financial instrument complexity and accelerated trading to near light speed. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 226

Broader Connections

• Digital computing boosted circulation and exchange, not productive output. #expands (1.00) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 76