ABSTRACT
Critics of financialization highlight how it enabled speculators to engage in 'market betting' within a 'casino economy'. This chapter examines how classical sociologists examined the separation of finance and production, which has been accelerated by recent developments, before looking at what this new economy consists of, and the contrasting explanations given for the crash that followed its unprecedented expansion. It investigates further the impact of financialization, and then focuses on the fundamental distinction between risk and uncertainty. Arbitrage describes a form of trading unconcerned with the specifics of material production, taking to an extreme the tendency for the financial sector to view products or services as instantly exchangeable financial instruments. A contrasting approach to the social relationships associated with arbitrage comes from the 'new financial sociology' that emerged during the 1990s. Judging capitalism as inherently crisis-ridden, this intensified exploitation approach views financialization as an attempt to restore profitability by any exploitative means available.
