ABSTRACT
In both our scholarship and our society, we are wedded to the notion that the financial economy (of money) exists for, refers to, and is meaningless without the so-called real economy (of things). In capital markets research in accounting, for example, we use the reactions of financial markets to measure the impacts of real events. But what if “real” finance (finance which refers to the real economy), is in fact “hyperreal” finance (finance which refers to nothing but itself)? What if financial transactions are not moves in an economic (real) game but moves in a non-economic (hyperreal) game? In a post-modern society, the traditional economic (real) role of finance has been marginalized. To understand finance and to develop effective public policy regarding financial markets, one must acknowledge its more cultural (hyperreal) role.
