Banking on decent jobs: bankers have choices in how they use new technology to transform work. So far, ordinary workers are both winners and losers. Why not more winners?

NEW TECHNOLOGIES CAME SLOWLY TO THE BANKING industry, but change is now coming faster and faster. The question is, who will benefit?

Consider the check, a banking mainstay introduced shortly after the Civil War. For more than a century, checks were processed by hand. When a check was received, a clerk, sometimes wearing a green eyeshade, wrote down the amount, whether for $1 or $1 million. The check, bundled with others, was sent, often in a cardboard box, to another clerk. This clerk added up all the checks in the batch and verified that the sum equaled that of the deposit ...

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