ABSTRACT
The term “financialisation” is a recognition that finance has come to play a key role in 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. This chapter examines the reasons for the 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: “little more than a series of definitions and phrases together with a mass of detailed material that often seems to have little connection with . . . overall generalisations. What is lacking is a theory that would connect the two” (Brewer, 1980, p. 167). (Though Anthony Brewer wrote this about Emmanuel Wallerstein’s work on imperialism, nevertheless his remark aptly summarises the arguments in this chapter.)
