Stavros Mavroudeas — The Financialisation Hypothesis and Marxism: a Positive Contribution or a Trojan Horse?

This paper discusses the Marxist and Marxisant versions of the FH and argues that they misconceive the actual workings of modern capitalism leading to an explanatory blind alley. The spectacular ballooning of the financial system during the recent decades of weak profitability and accumulation does not constitute a new epoch, let alone a new capitalism. Instead it constitutes a well-known capitalist reaction in periods of weak profitability. This does not preclude the proliferation of new financial instruments which give new special forms of appearance to a usual capitalist process. Contrary to the FH, it will be argued that the Classical Marxist theory of crisis and fictitious capital offers an analytically and empirically superior understanding of this process.

Counterpunch
The Financialisation Hypothesis and Marxism: a Positive Contribution or a Trojan Horse?Stavros Mavroudeas | Professor of Political Economy in the Economics Department of the University of Macedonia