Is financialised capitalism the worst form of capitalism ever?

• Department of Economics
• Department of History
• Department of Law
• Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies
• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences
• Florence School of Transnational Governance
• Development and External Relations Service
• Finance and society

What should we make of the power of finance to destroy and to improve livelihoods in capitalism? Is its destructive potential simply the mirror image of its creative force? This session organised by the Finance and Society Interdisciplinary Research Cluster will aim to explore these questions.

For some scholars, financialised capitalism is the most destructive form of capitalism. In her Marc Bloch lecture, Nancy Fraser argues that in contrast to liberal competitive and state-managed capitalism of previous centuries, financialised capitalism cannibalises the sphere of social reproduction without which ‘there could be no culture, no economy, no political organization’. Through debt finance, it forces governments sooner or later into austerity, families into dual earner households to make a living, and the periphery into massive wealth transfers to the rich centre. However, this incisive critique of contemporary finance seems to downplay the physical violence of colonialism and the debtors prison, or the domination of so many women when the male breadwinner earned the family wage, reducing the spouse to motherhood and home-making. Moreover, finance can be put to good use, such as micro-credit to start a business and consumer credit to afford those durable goods that make household work so much less onerous.

Expert witnesses: Daniela Gabor (UWE Bristol) and Glenda Sluga (EUI) 

Professor Daniela Gabor is a leading proponent of critical macro-finance. Professor Glenda Sluga is an eminent historian of capitalism and economic thinking.

Jurors: Freek Loves (History), Lala Darchinova (Law), Lorenzo Moretti (FBF), Tobias Pforr (SPS)