As we tour the 400 year history of capitalism through its various phases of development, financial system instability is always there lurking in the shadows. The historical record attests that the processes of aggregating capital for real investment are inescapably vulnerable to risk, manic speculation, unserviceable debt, and crises; and with each episode of instability, a trail of devastation follows. Economic historians such as Hyman Minsky, Charles Kindleberger and others have studied this history and have exposed certain boom-bust patterns that have a way of stubbornly repeating themselves. This book posits that the large-scale financial crises that the world has experienced over the last 30 years are more or less the latest segments in this narrative, but with some distinct characteristics. In the period spanning the stock market crash of 1987 to the banking crisis of 2008 and its aftermath - the Greenspan Era - there were key institutional and ideologicaldevelopments rooted in contemporary neoliberalism that have reshaped the historic rise-and-fall patterns to become more severe and widespread. In this important volume, Magnuson suggests the next episode will be a massive financial cyclone that will send us all tumbling toward a perilous future.

Autorentext

Joel Magnuson is an independent economist based in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of many books, as well as numerous articles in journals and anthologies in the United States, Europe, and Japan. His research interests include mindful economics and institutional reform.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Taking the Long View

Chapter 3: Fortune 500 and Wall Street Leviathans

Chapter 4: Corporate Hegemony and the Mutual Support Network

Chapter 5: Contemporary Neoliberalism

Chapter 6: Everyday Neoliberalism

Chapter 7: The Crises of the Eighties and the Ascent of the Greenspan Era

Chapter 8: The Washington Consensus and the Epic Crises of the Nineties

Chapter 9: The 2008 Meltdown

Chapter 10: Microfinance and Loan Sharking

Chapter 11: Will Peer-to-Peer and Equity Crowdfunding Be Different?

Chapter 12: The Neoliberal Oxymoron of Green Capitalism

Chapter 13: Conclusion