This chapter describes the model of genre that makes the concept useful for conceptualizing norms and interconnectedness, both of which are essential to understanding the modern global economy. It examines derivatives, the financial instrument partly responsible for the degree of interconnectedness that distinguishes this global economic system from its predecessors, and explains why it is useful to conceptualize derivatives as genres. The chapter expresses that thinking of derivatives as forms that have departed from a generic norm helps to understand why they must be regulated as part of any effective reform. The model of genre most useful for understanding norms, interrelation, and innovation is derived from the work of Ralph Cohen, founder of New Literary History. Critics of capitalism might well say that attempting to establish normative rules for the instrument that has transformed the world economic system will merely reproduce the basic contradiction in capitalism itself-not to mention perpetuate the inequalities capitalism needs in order to survive.