The so-called "financialization" of the global economy encompasses more than the operations of financial capital.

For Arrighi, this alternation of material and financial expansions, anchored by a hegemonic center, accounts for the emergence of capitalism itself, yet as each cycle concentrates a greater degree of power, it also hastens its own exhaustion.

First comes a “material expansion” under the aegis of a dominant bloc powerful enough to control interstate competition and “ensure material cooperation.”

destined for hegemonic domination and financial apotheosis

the various forms of “primitive accumulation” described by Marx (whereby land, labor, and natural resources are turned into commodities)

we can see how this “structural adjustment” of public finances has played out rather badly in most places where the Washington Consensus was implemented, not least in Washington itself

we can see how this “structural adjustment” of public finances has played out rather badly in most places where the Washington Consensus was implemented, not least in Washington itself

it seems long ago that anybody trusted the state to serve as a bulwark against the global system

What might appear to each of us as vicissitudes of fate and fortune are actually organized by more durable relationships and processes that usually remain opaque.

Through its operations the scission between wealth and poverty turns into a self-reinforcing pincer.