Financialization and Debt: Much Worse Than Parasites

Al Campbell and Erdogan Bakir

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2022, vol. 54, issue 4, 452-460

Abstract: Starting from the two correct positions that, compared to the form of capitalism that preceded it, neoliberal capitalism has generally been more harmful to working people, and that in it finance plays a greater role in both scale and scope, some political economists argue that in neoliberalism financial capital is parasitic on nonfinancial (or “productive,†or “industrial†) capital. The central argument of this article is that, to the contrary, financial capital serves all capital through the various ways that it allows for neoliberalism to increase its appropriation of surplus value. To concretely support this position, the article considers a particular financial relation, debt, and indicates seven specific ways debt expansion facilitates neoliberalism’s pursuit of increased appropriation of surplus value. Secondarily, this article rejects any stated or implied policy implications from the parasitic financial capital thesis that present “productive capitalism†as the desirable alternative to the deleterious effects of financialized capitalism. JEL Classification : G00, G51, H63

Keywords: neoliberalism; financialization; debt; financial capital; parasitic capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:54:y:2022:i:4:p:452-460

DOI: 10.1177/04866134221103621

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