Valueless Knowledge-Commodities and Financialization

Abstract

We present a Marxian theory of the capitalist production of knowledge and of financialization as two processes subsumed under the principle of autonomization of capital. Our approach consists of three tasks. The first is to develop the principle of autonomization. The second is to show how financialization can be a misleading term. The third is to develop a new theory of the production and distribution of valueless knowledge-commodities and knowledge-rent. Our Marxian framework demonstrates how the autonomization of capital manifests itself in its two active dimensions: the financial through financialization, and the productive through knowledge-commodities. JEL codes: B51, O33, O34 1