In this context putting money into Finance means investing it through Wall Street via a range of their products such as derivatives/options trading, currency trading, HFT what have you. You could say making money through speculative assets and you won't be far off.
In other words Finance here refers to investing money not directly in real economy, such as building factories, houses etc., but in speculative products such as I listed above. It is possible that the money so invested in Finance somehow eventually makes it to the real economy. But since late 20th century the size of Finance relative to Real Economy has exploded. Multiple trillions of dollars worth of products are traded each day in Financial markets but in real economy (i.e., people buying/selling goods/services) only a fraction of that amount changes hands. So there is a growing disconnect between Finance and Real economy; which is why Wallet Street (Finance) and Main Street (real economy) have grown so much apart.
Coming to Trump and Real Estate. For a real estate builder, their domain expertise is around forecasting future needs and invest in building houses/office spaces. They invest some of their own money, borrow some from banks, build houses, sell for profit, repay banks and pocket some of that profit. So this part is well understood.
A builder can do well only when millions of people are earning well and are able to buy/rent their buildings. Falling wages is a really bad news for real estate firms. As Graeber says in that video, you can not export real estate buildings. So for them to do well the domestic real economy must do well. The Finance sector however has no such constraints. At the shortest of notice they can seamlessly move their money across the border chasing higher returns. There are times when Finance feels the effects of worsening real economy however as we saw in 2008 when falling housing prices (which were artificially inflated to being with, thanks to speculation) lead to Wall Street crisis.
I usually don't trust Wikipedia now a days but it does have good content in this case[1].
In other words Finance here refers to investing money not directly in real economy, such as building factories, houses etc., but in speculative products such as I listed above. It is possible that the money so invested in Finance somehow eventually makes it to the real economy. But since late 20th century the size of Finance relative to Real Economy has exploded. Multiple trillions of dollars worth of products are traded each day in Financial markets but in real economy (i.e., people buying/selling goods/services) only a fraction of that amount changes hands. So there is a growing disconnect between Finance and Real economy; which is why Wallet Street (Finance) and Main Street (real economy) have grown so much apart.
Coming to Trump and Real Estate. For a real estate builder, their domain expertise is around forecasting future needs and invest in building houses/office spaces. They invest some of their own money, borrow some from banks, build houses, sell for profit, repay banks and pocket some of that profit. So this part is well understood.
A builder can do well only when millions of people are earning well and are able to buy/rent their buildings. Falling wages is a really bad news for real estate firms. As Graeber says in that video, you can not export real estate buildings. So for them to do well the domestic real economy must do well. The Finance sector however has no such constraints. At the shortest of notice they can seamlessly move their money across the border chasing higher returns. There are times when Finance feels the effects of worsening real economy however as we saw in 2008 when falling housing prices (which were artificially inflated to being with, thanks to speculation) lead to Wall Street crisis.
I usually don't trust Wikipedia now a days but it does have good content in this case[1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization