ABSTRACT
The basis of a capitalist economy is that money is advanced to make more money. This rests on the production and distribution of commodities by industrial and commercial enterprises. However, banks and other financial institutions play a very special role in this process: they manage the advance and circulation of money. Since the emergence of capitalism, financiers have through their strategic position been able to appropriate an impressive share of the economic surplus. As a result of the influence that the financial sector has exerted over activities in the rest of the economy, it has played a major role in shaping the pattern of inequality under capitalism.
