A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and its Crisis

Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos is Lecturer of Economics at Kingston University, London, UK.

In the aftermath of the global financial meltdown, this book analyses the ongoing financialization of the economy as a development within capitalism, and explores the ways in which it has changed the organization of capitalist power.

Introduction Part I: The Long Tradition of Finance as a Counter-Productive Activity in Heterodox Thinking: A Marxian appraisal 1. The Parasitic Absentee Owner in the Keynes-Veblen-Proudhon Tradition 2. Ricardian Marxism and Finance as Unproductive Activity 3. Is Finance Productive or 'Parasitic'? Part II: Financial Innovation, Money and Capitalist Exploitation: A short detour in the history of economic ideas 4. Derivatives as Money? A short detour in the history of economic ideas 5. Finance, Discipline and Social Behavior: Tracing the terms of a problem that was never properly stated Part III: Rethinking Finance: A Marxian analytical framework 6. Episodes in Finance 7. Fictitious Capital and Finance: An introduction to Marx's analysis (in the third volume of Capital) 8. Financialization as a Technology of Power: Incorporating risk into the Marxian framework Part IV: The Crisis of the Euro Area 9. Towards a Political Economy of Monetary Unions: Revisiting the crisis of the Euro area 10. European Governance and its Contradictions Conclusions