Author: Jan Toporowski / Topic: Finance

Author:: Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:: 03-2012
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:: The term „financialisation‟ is a recognition that finance has come to play a key role on the modern capitalist economy. But users of the term do not agree on its meaning and recognition of the growing scale of finance has not brought about an increased understanding of financial processes. The paper examines the reasons for increased turnover in financial markets. The main themes in the literature on financialisation are examined and shown to lack a coherent account of financial processes that goes beyond the evidence of financial activity.
Topic:: Debt, Finance, Credit, and Financialisation
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Author:: Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:: 04-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:: This paper examines some of the social, economic and political consequences of financial inflation for the activities of companies and the operations in debt markets of an increasingly financial middle class. In this paper ‘financialisation’ is broadly defined as the inflation of capital markets. The first section of the paper explains the Kalecki-Steindl theory of enforced company indebtedness in a middle-class society. The second section of the paper shows how financial inflation makes companies over- capitalised, resulting in a decline in the trend of long-term investment. The third section shows how forced company indebtedness is modified when the middle classes start to operate in inflating asset markets. A conclusion sketches out some of the consequences of this financialisation for politics, social policy, and moral and cultural attitudes.
Topic:: Culture, Finance, Social Policy, and Middle Class
Political Geography:: Global Focus

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