Cultures of Financialization

Financialization not only refers to the incredible power of the financial sector over economics and politics; it also refers to the creep of financial ideas, metaphors, narratives and measurements throughout society and culture more broadly. Examining a wide range of examples and case studies, Max Haiven argues that, at the same time that popular culture and everyday life are increasingly saturated by a financial idiom, the financial sector as a whole is more deeply invested than ever in everyday life and culture writ large. From the security culture of Walmart to children’s play with Pokémon trading cards, from the hype around the ’creative economy’ to the economics of austerity and precariousness, this book seeks to reveal financialization at work where we might least expect to find it. In an age when seemingly imaginary financial assets determine the fates of whole economies, Haiven suggests that we take the idea of ’fictitious capital’ seriously as a way to understand the power of finance, and what might be done to stop it.