Critical Observations on Financialization and the Financial Process

Abstract

The term "financialization" is a recognition that finance has come to play a key role on the modern capitalist economy. But users of the term do not agree on its meaning and recognition of the growing scale of finance has not brought about an increased understanding of financial processes. The paper examines the reasons for increased turnover in financial markets. The main themes in the literature on financialization are examined and shown to lack a coherent account of financial processes that goes beyond the evidence of financial activity.