Financial market capitalism

Financial market capitalism (also: financial capitalism ) is a social science term that characterizes a newer type of capitalism in which the financial markets exert a growing influence on the real economy . The term coined by the sociologist Paul Windolf was taken up in particular by Christoph Deutschmann and Klaus Dörre .

Terms

Financial market capitalism

Financial market capitalism replaces traditional manager capitalism (see James Burnham ). It is shaped by a specific configuration of economic institutions. These institutions include: the stock markets , investment funds (as owners ), financial analysts and rating agencies ( boundary roles ), and transfer mechanisms (e.g. hostile takeovers ).

The stock markets form the center of control in financial market capitalism. They offer a special opportunity structure for opportunism ( moral hazard ) because they only fake a transformation from uncertainty into risk . For Windolf, the "new owners" are the investment funds, which already own the majority of the large stock corporations in the USA . Subject to the operational logic of the financial markets , they force states and companies to adopt short-term strategies of maximizing profits and increasing returns . Financial analysts and rating agencies occupy important boundary roles in this system , which convert uncertainty into risk. Windolf identifies the market for corporate control, stock options and shareholder value as specific transfer mechanisms for hostile takeovers .

In contrast to Rudolf Hilferding's “ financial capital ”, the control exercised by financial markets is abstract, anonymous and factual, that is, it does not appear as the rule of a certain class or group and not as a personal but rather anonymous and global market forces mediated dependency.

Financialization

Financialization is a loan translation from English ( financialization ).

Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira understands “financialization” as a distorted institutional arrangement that creates financial wealth in an “artificial” way, ie without being linked to real economic production processes. This ties in with the distinction between productive and unproductive work known from classical economics .

Gerald E. Epstein takes the term a little wider. He understands by this the increasing importance of financial motives of financial markets and financial institutions and their actors for the national and international economy.

Marcel Heires and Andreas Nölke define financialization as a shift in power between the financial sector and the real economy, which was and is being brought about by a whole series of changes. They cite as examples:

• the deregulation and opening of previously nationally segmented financial markets,
• the increased marketing of financial relationships,
• the explosion of new financial instruments ,
• the rise of institutional investors in the financial markets,
• the emergence of shareholder value as a new guiding ideology for the management of companies and the reshaping of corporate control,
• the dramatic expansion of the credit and investment business for private customers in the form of mortgages , consumer loans and private old-age insurance .

Greta R. Krippner has empirically examined the financialization of the US economy and developed measuring instruments for this.

Industrial sociologists in Germany use financialization as a process term that expresses the internal control ( corporate governance ) of companies through capital market-generated variables.

literature

• Norbert Blüm : Honest work. An attack on financial capitalism and its greed . Gütersloh publishing house , Gütersloh 2011.
• Christoph Deutschmann : Capitalist Dynamics: A Social Theoretical Perspective . VS Verlag , Opladen 2008.
• Alexander Engel: The Bang after the Boom: Understanding Financialization . In: Zeithistorische Forschungen 12 (2015), pp. 500–510.
• Gerald A. Epstein: Financialization and the world economy. Edward Elgar Publishing , 2006, ISBN 1-84542-965-6 . (on-line)
• Michael Faust / Reinhard Bahnmüller / Christiane Fisecker: The capital market-oriented company. External expectations, corporate policy, human resources and participation . edition sigma , Berlin 2011.
• Jürgen Kädtler: Company and inter-company organization: financial markets and financialization. In: Handbook of Work Sociology. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-15432-9 , pp. 619-639.
• Paul Windolf (ed.): Financial market capitalism . Special issue 45/2005 of the Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology .
• Stephan Krüger: "General theory of capital accumulation. Business cycle and long-term development trends: Critique of political economy and analysis of capitalism", Volume 1. Hamburg. Chapter 10 d) Financial market capitalism as an intrinsic response to the structural over-accumulation of capital. VSA-Verlag , Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-376-2 .
• Ulrike Herrmann : The victory of capital. How wealth came into the world. The story of growth, money and crises. Westend Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-86489-044-4 . Paperback edition by Piper, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-492-30568-6

Web links

• Paul Windolf: What is financial market capitalism? (PDF; 3.1 MB)
• Antonio Tricarico and Heike Löschmann: Finanzialisierung - a lever to contain the Commons , in Commons - For a new policy beyond market and state , transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2012, p. 184.

See also

• Finance capital
• Casino capitalism

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul Windolf : What is financial market capitalism? In the S. (Ed.): Financial market capitalism . Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology special issue 45/2005, pp. 20–57.
2. ↑ Christoph Deutschmann : Financial Market Capitalism and Growth Crisis In: Paul Windolf (Ed.): Financial Market Capitalism . Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology Special Issue 45/2005, pp. 58–84.
3. ^ Klaus Dörre and Ulrich Brinkmann : Financial Market Capitalism: Driving Force of a Flexible Production Model? In: Paul Windolf (ed.): Financial market capitalism . Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology special issue 45/2005, pp. 85–116.
4. ^ Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira: The Global Financial Crisis and a New Capitalism? (PDF; 376 kB) Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 592 May 2010.
5. ↑ Gerald E. Epstein (2005: 3), cit. according to Bresser-Pereira, p. 9.
6. ↑ Marcel Heires and Andreas Nölke: Finanzkrise und Finanzialisierung Revised version of the article from Oliver Kessler: 2011: Die Politische Ökonomie der Weltfinanzkrise , VS-Verlag, pp. 37–52.
7. ^ Greta R. Krippner: The financialization of the American economy. Socio-Economic Review 2005 3 (2), pp. 173-208.