ABSTRACT
This volume develops an original critique of the belief that the present era of finance, where finance markets dominate contemporary capitalist economies, represents the best possible way of organising economic affairs. In fact, it is argued, the ensuing economic instability and inefficiency create the preconditions for the end of the dominance of finance. The End of Finance develops a theory of capital market inflation rooted in the work of Veblen, Kalecki, Keynes and Minsky, demonstrating how it disinclines productive activity on the part of firms, provides only short-term conditions that are propitious for privatisation and distorts monetary policy in the long-term. The author examines the role of pension fund schemes and financial derivatives in transmitting capital market inflation and provides a nuanced analysis of the contradictory role they play in the financial system. Capital market inflation is also examined in its historical context and compared with past inflations, in particular the South Sea and Mississippi Bubbles, which spawned the first financial derivatives, and the first privatisations. This broad historical vision allows us to see these forms of inflation as temporary and provisional in character.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |15 pages
Introduction: Antecedents and methodology
part I|30 pages
The theory of capital market inflation
chapter 1|10 pages
Capital markets and the real economy
chapter 2|18 pages
Value and excess in capital markets
part II|44 pages
Ponzi finance and pension fund capitalism
chapter 3|15 pages
Pension funds and Ponzi finance
chapter 4|5 pages
Capital market inflation and privatization
chapter 5|13 pages
Pension fund inflows and their investment
chapter 6|9 pages
The end of funded pension schemes
part III|38 pages
Financial derivatives and liquidity preference
chapter 8|12 pages
Commercial and investment uses of financial futures 3
chapter 9|6 pages
The broking of financial futures
chapter 10|10 pages
Regulation and the systemic risk of financial futures
part IV|8 pages
Conclusion