If they were to film "It's a Wonderful Life" today, the hero would probably not be a banker-and not just because of the optimistic title. The shape of finance has changed radically in the past few decades. For every traditional bank clerk there are several sorts of financial intermediators. The character of George Bailey would today be as likely to manage a money-market fund as take in humble bank deposits. Or he might work at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, America's housing-finance giants, buying home loans from banks and packaging them into mortgage-backed securities.
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