Read more
The recent financial meltdown and the resulting global recession have rekindled debates regarding the nature of contemporary capitalism.
This book analyses the ongoing financialization of the economy as a development within capitalism, and explores the ways in which it has changed the organization of capitalist power. The authors offer an interpretation of the role of the financial sphere which displays a striking contrast to the majority of contemporary heterodox approaches. Their interpretation stresses the crucial role of financial derivatives in the contemporary organization of capitalist power relations, arguing that the process of financialization is in fact entirely unthinkable in the absence of derivatives.
The book also uses Marx's concepts and some of the arguments developed in the framework of the historic Marxist controversies on economic crises in order to gain an insight into the modern neoliberal form of capitalism and the recent financial crisis. Employing a series of international case studies, this book will be essential reading for all those with an interest in the financial crisis, and all those seeking to comprehend the workings of capitalism.
List of contents
Introduction Part I: The Long Tradition of Finance as a Counter-Productive Activity in Heterodox Thinking: A Marxian appraisal 1. The Parasitic Absentee Owner in the Keynes-Veblen-Proudhon Tradition 2. Ricardian Marxism and Finance as Unproductive Activity 3. Is Finance Productive or ‘Parasitic’? Part II: Financial Innovation, Money and Capitalist Exploitation: A short detour in the history of economic ideas 4. Derivatives as Money? A short detour in the history of economic ideas 5. Finance, Discipline and Social Behavior: Tracing the terms of a problem that was never properly stated Part III: Rethinking Finance: A Marxian analytical framework 6. Episodes in Finance 7. Fictitious Capital and Finance: An introduction to Marx’s analysis (in the third volume of Capital) 8. Financialization as a Technology of Power: Incorporating risk into the Marxian framework Part IV: The Crisis of the Euro Area 9. Towards a Political Economy of Monetary Unions: Revisiting the crisis of the Euro area 10. European Governance and its Contradictions Conclusions
About the author
Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos is Lecturer of Economics at Kingston University, London, UK.
John Milios is Professor of Political Economy and History of Economic Thought at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.
Spyros Lapatsioras is Lecturer of the History of Economic Thought at the University of Crete, Greece.
Summary
In the aftermath of the global financial meltdown, this book analyses the ongoing financialization of the economy as a development within capitalism, and explores the ways in which it has changed the organization of capitalist power.
