Regarding financial intermediation: 
     Focusing simply on the level of savings and concurrent bank 
activities misses an important engine in the history of finance -- 
financial innovation.   
     The shift into modern rates of growth in the U.S. sometime  
around the 1810s or 1820s was preceded by a profound restructuring 
of financial institutions and markets.  As reducing transportation 
costs benefits both consumer and producer, so too reducing costs 
of financial intermediation benefits those who would fall into 
far different categories if you stuck to the rigid box category 
interpretations of macro growth. 
     -- Mary Schweitzer