Marx and Financialisation

Today’s capitalist economic systems are characterised by turbulence, structural change, financialisation and increasing domestic and international conflicts. This book argues that rereading Marx’s political economy – free from traditional political and economic conditioning – can provide a clearer understanding of this evolution of contemporary financial capitalism. The book demonstrates that Marx’s theory of capital accumulation is intrinsically a monetary theory where money capital constitutes both the point of departure and the point of return of the entire circuit of capital. It is therefore particularly suitable for explaining the dynamics of financial capital. However, Marx created a system that embraced all the social sciences and many of his philosophical and methodological presumptions are often unfamiliar to economists. This book, therefore, tries to clarify Marxian scientific paradigm to make it more accessible and consonant with the way of thinking of today’s modern economists and financial analysts. To this end, it offers a systematic reinterpretation of Marx’s critique of political economy in the light of contemporary developments in complexity science. The book shows how Marxian insights and analytical perspectives can improve our understanding of today’s financialisation which cannot be seen as an exogenous accident or a mere shift in the power relations between financial interests and other economic interests. Rather, it can be seen as the result of a natural propensity of the circuit of capital. This book will be vital reading for those interested in Marxist political economy, financialization, capitalism and the history of economic thought.