Assets and assetization in financialized capitalism.
04 Mar 2021-Review of International Political Economy (Taylor & Francis)-Vol. 28, Iss: 2, pp 382-393
TL;DR: In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007-09, political economists have typically identified and interrogated speculative logics and credit-debt relations as the markers of financialized c...
Abstract: In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007–09, political economists have typically identified and interrogated speculative logics and credit-debt relations as the markers of financialized c...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the pragmatist contribution of John Dewey provides a particularly useful resource with which to engage with the subject of valuation, and the usefulness of a pragmatic stance in the understanding of financial valuation today.
Abstract: The sociological understanding of valuation often starts with an idea of value as something that something has by virtue of how people consider it (that is, it is socially constructed, a convention, a social representation, a projection). At some point, however, analysis also often draws a contrast between this sort of appraisal and some other type of value that the thing may have as a result of its own condition (what it costs, how it is made, with what kind of labour, money and materials, what it is worth in relation to objective standards and fundamental metrics). Dissatisfaction with this binary approach has been expressed in various quarters, but the pragmatist contribution of John Dewey provides a particularly useful resource with which to engage with the subject. This article reviews some aspects of this dissatisfaction, with a focus on the pragmatist idea of valuation considered as an action. I discuss this idea in relation to financial valuation, referring in particular to early pedagogical materials on corporation finance elaborated in the context of the professionalization of business administration. Finally I elaborate on the usefulness of a pragmatist stance in the understanding of financial valuation today.
55 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors build on Holmqvist's work, not only by constructing carefully crafted, well-written, meaningful ethnographies, but also in providing a nuanced picture of the means by which individuals are formed into elites through specific practices of consecration.
Abstract: vincing case for the need to further understand the significance of leader communities within society as a whole. Others should build on Holmqvist’s work, not only by constructing carefully crafted, well-written, meaningful ethnographies, but also in providing a nuanced picture of the means by which individuals are formed into elites through specific practices of consecration. Through such work, we can better understand how these relatively small communities significantly affect the rest of the world.
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TL;DR: A dedicated and dynamic carbon finance sector has emerged that features technique-based carbon finance as mentioned in this paper, and private investment capital is now widely regarded as strategically significant to the governance of climate change.
Abstract: Private investment capital is now widely regarded as strategically significant to the governance of climate change. A dedicated and dynamic carbon finance sector has emerged that features technique...
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TL;DR: In this paper , a special issue argues that to make sense of the increased prominence of central banks after the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic requires interrogating the sources of and limits to their governmental power.
Abstract: Abstract This special issue argues that to make sense of the increased prominence of central banks after the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic requires interrogating the sources of and limits to their governmental power. In a time in which the ‘big state’ has returned alongside new forms of financial speculation, the theoretical claim advanced by this introductory paper is that the state ‘effect’ is in crucial respects conditioned by the economic governance arrangements set in place by central banks. We show that at the same time as promoting entanglements between states and markets, central banks attempt to draw new boundaries between state and economy, lending an unstable and sometimes contradictory character to their interventions. Providing the outlines of a new historical sociology of central banking which introduces the papers in the special issue, we explore the double movement that has underpinned the evolution of central banking since early modernity and holds clues for unravelling the paradoxes of the present.
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TL;DR: The authors argue that alternative data are an open-ended placeholder for every data source potentially relevant for investment management purposes and harnessing these disparate data sources requires certain standardization efforts by different market participants.
Abstract: Social media commentary, satellite imagery and GPS data are a part of ‘alternative data’, that is, data that originate outside of the standard repertoire of market data but are considered useful for predicting stock prices, detecting different risk exposures and discovering new price movement indicators. With the availability of sophisticated machine-learning analytics tools, alternative data are gaining traction within the investment management and algorithmic trading industries. Drawing on interviews with people working in investment management and algorithmic trading firms utilizing alternative data, as well as firms providing and sourcing such data, we emphasize social media-based sentiment analytics as one manifestation of how alternative data are deployed for stock price prediction purposes. This demonstrates both how sentiment analytics are developed and subsequently utilized by investment management firms. We argue that ‘alternative data’ are an open-ended placeholder for every data source potentially relevant for investment management purposes and harnessing these disparate data sources requires certain standardization efforts by different market participants. Besides showing how market participants understand and use alternative data, we demonstrate that alternative data often undergo processes of (a) prospecting (i.e. rendering such data amenable to processing with the aid of analytics tools) and (b) assetization (i.e. the transformation of data into tradable assets). We further contend that the widespread embracement of alternative data in investment management and trading encourages a financialization process at the data level which raises new governance issues.
13 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present three key facts about income and wealth inequality in the long run emerging from my book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and seek to sharpen and refocus the discussion about those trends.
Abstract: In this article, I present three key facts about income and wealth inequality in the long run emerging from my book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and seek to sharpen and refocus the discussion about those trends. In particular, I clarify the role played by r > g in my analysis of wealth inequality. I also discuss some of the implications for optimal taxation, and the relation between capital-income ratios and capital shares.
7,011 citations
"Assets and assetization in financia..." refers background in this paper
...2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 2010); and, the importance of wealth accumulated from unevenly distributed asset ownership for the intensification of inequalities since the crisis (e.g. Pikkety, 2014)....
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Book•
01 Aug 2013
TL;DR: Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century as mentioned in this paper is an intellectual tour de force, a triumph of economic history over the theoretical, mathematical modeling that has come to dominate the economics profession in recent years.
Abstract: A New York Times #1 Bestseller An Amazon #1 Bestseller A Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller A Sunday Times Bestseller Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Winner of the British Academy Medal Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award "It seems safe to say that Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the magnum opus of the French economist Thomas Piketty, will be the most important economics book of the year-and maybe of the decade." -Paul Krugman, New York Times "The book aims to revolutionize the way people think about the economic history of the past two centuries. It may well manage the feat." -The Economist "Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century is an intellectual tour de force, a triumph of economic history over the theoretical, mathematical modeling that has come to dominate the economics profession in recent years." -Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post "Piketty has written an extraordinarily important book...In its scale and sweep it brings us back to the founders of political economy." -Martin Wolf, Financial Times "A sweeping account of rising inequality...Piketty has written a book that nobody interested in a defining issue of our era can afford to ignore." -John Cassidy, New Yorker "Stands a fair chance of becoming the most influential work of economics yet published in our young century. It is the most important study of inequality in over fifty years." -Timothy Shenk, The Nation
6,234 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the insights of more than a decade of scholarship on financialization and argue that a deeper understanding of financialization will lead to a better understanding of organized interests, the politics of the welfare state, and processes of institutional change.
Abstract: Since the early 2000s, scholars from a variety of disciplines have used the concept of financialization to describe a host of structural changes in the advanced political economies. Studies of financialization interrogate how an increasingly autonomous realm of global finance has altered the underlying logics of the industrial economy and the inner workings of democratic society. This paper evaluates the insights of more than a decade of scholarship on financialization. Three approaches will be discussed: the emergence of a new regime of accumulation, the ascendency of the shareholder value orientation and the financialization of everyday life. It is argued that a deeper understanding of financialization will lead to a better understanding of organized interests, the politics of the welfare state, and processes of institutional change.
893 citations
Book•
08 Aug 2011TL;DR: The authors argue that the dominance over public life of the giant corporation has been intensified by the recent financial crisis and acceptance that certain financial corporations are 'too big to fail'. But they do not consider the impact of the corporation on both the market and the state.
Abstract: The financial crisis seemed to present a fundamental challenge to neo-liberalism, the body of ideas that have constituted the political orthodoxy of most advanced economies in recent decades. Colin Crouch argues in this book that it will shrug off this challenge. The reason is that while neo-liberalism seems to be about free markets, in practice it is concerned with the dominance over public life of the giant corporation. This has been intensified, not checked, by the recent financial crisis and acceptance that certain financial corporations are 'too big to fail'. Although much political debate remains preoccupied with conflicts between the market and the state, the impact of the corporation on both these is today far more important. -- Back cover.
713 citations
"Assets and assetization in financia..." refers background in this paper
...At the same time, Marxist, postKeynesian, feminist and cultural political economists variously refocused the analysis of financialized capitalism on credit-debt relations, especially household and individual indebtedness (Crouch, 2011; Joseph, 2014; Lapavitsas, 2014; Lazzarato, 2012; Soederberg, 2014)....
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...…same time, Marxist, postKeynesian, feminist and cultural political economists variously refocused the analysis of financialized capitalism on credit-debt relations, especially household and individual indebtedness (Crouch, 2011; Joseph, 2014; Lapavitsas, 2014; Lazzarato, 2012; Soederberg, 2014)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors characterize capital switching from the primary, secondary or tertiary circuit to the quaternary circuit of capital as a transition from a "facilitating market" for homeowners in need of credit to one increasingly facilitating global investment.
Abstract: Financialization can be characterized as capital switching from the primary, secondary or tertiary circuit to the quaternary circuit of capital. Housing is a central aspect of financialization. The financialization of mortgage markets demands that not just homes but also homeowners become viewed as financially exploitable. It is exemplified by the securitization of mortgage loans, but also by the use of credit scoring and risk-based pricing. In the past century, mortgage markets were transformed from being a ‘facilitating market’ for homeowners in need of credit to one increasingly facilitating global investment. Since mortgage markets are both local consumer markets and global investment markets, the dynamics of financialization and globalization directly relate homeowners to global investors thereby increasing the volatility in mortgage markets, as the current crisis shows all too well.
600 citations
"Assets and assetization in financia..." refers background in this paper
...The significance of asset-backed securitization techniques was revealed by the course of the global financial crisis (Aalbers, 2008)....
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...More recently, research has considered the role of asset-backed securitization techniques in the course of the global financial crisis (e.g. Aalbers, 2008); the emergence of asset-based welfare regimes preceding the crisis (e.g. Doling & Ronald, CONTACT Paul Langley paul.langley@durham.ac.uk…...
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