If the presidential race is any indicator of the citizenry's mood, many Americans are frustrated with the state of the country's economy. Unemployment has fallen to 5 percent, wages are up and the economy is slowly growing, but many people still feel left behind.

Rana Foroohar, assistant managing editor for business and economics Time Magazine, has come up with a possible explanation: the "financialization" of America, an all-encompassing term to describe how finance became the primary driver of economic growth. It's the subject of her new book “Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business.”

"Finance, which really used to just be a lubricant, a catalyst to business," Foroohar says. "has now become the main event."

Foroohar joined WNYC's Jami Floyd and Charlie Herman to discuss her book. This is the first in three conversations about the role of finance in the economy.