Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the main links and mechanisms of transmission between labour market, financialisation, financial-led growth regime and inequality. It identifies the determinants of the increase of income inequality that rich countries experienced in the last three decades. The book refers mostly to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and sometimes, more in particular, to the US and Western Europe. The main working hypothesis of the book is that in the age of "financial capitalism", and at least since 1980, along with the financialisation of the economy, inequality increased because labour flexibility increased, trade unions lost power hence labour market institutions weakened, and public social spending started to retrench and did not compensate for the vulnerabilities created by the globalisation process. It also proposes a new classification of welfare models, such as welfare capitalism and financial capitalism.