Representation of Financial Crises in Film, Media, and Popular Culture in Light of Veblen’s Views

Anita Oğurlu and Gülenay Baş Dinar

Journal of Economic Issues, 2025, vol. 59, issue 3, 724-743

Abstract: Since the 2007–2008 financial crisis, there has been renewed interest in explaining the reasons for the crisis. Films focusing on financial institutions, corporations and CEOs, bankers and Wall Street, stock markets and insider traders have gained popularity to influence public opinion on the financial crisis. Amidst a series of bank bailouts, despite promises made by regulators to implement new checks and balances to quell public anger, the global economy continues to falter, with expectations of a recession in the near future.Over a century ago, Thorstein Veblen analyzed modern finance capitalism, the credit economy, and economic crises, defining his era as one of “business civilization.” Veblen’s interdisciplinary approach included sociological, anthropological, and psychological analyses, placing culture and economy at the center. Our investigation considers the political economy of culture (Bob Jessop), the culture industry in which films are produced (Theodor Adorno), and the encoding and decoding of messages (Stuart Hall).While films tend to emphasize aggressive competition, fraudulence, and corruption, mainstream crisis theories ignore factors that are distinctive features of modern finance capitalism. Through the use of film interpretation, this study examines the cultural aspects of financial markets, drawing on Veblen’s arguments and framework regarding instabilities that arise in the functioning of modern capitalism.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00213624.2025.2533732 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:59:y:2025:i:3:p:724-743

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/MJEI20

DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2025.2533732

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Economic Issues from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().