The violence of financial capitalism - Christian Marazzi

The 2010 English-language edition of Christian Marazzi's The Violence of
Financial Capitalism made a groundbreaking work on the global financial crisis
available to an expanded readership. This new edition has been updated to reflect
recent events, up to and including the G20 summit in July 2010 and the broad
consensus to reduce government spending that emerged from it. Marazzi, a leading
figure in the European postfordist movement, argues that the processes of
financialization are not simply irregularities between the traditional categories of
wages, rent, and profit, but rather a new type of accumulation adapted to the
processes of social and cognitive production today. The financial crisis, he
contends, is a fundamental component of contemporary accumulation and not a classic
lack of economic growth. Marazzi shows that individual debt and the management of
financial markets are actually techniques for governing the transformations of
immaterial labor, general intellect, and social cooperation. The financial crisis
has radically undermined the very concept of unilateral and multilateral
economico-political hegemony, and Marazzi discusses efforts toward a new geomonetary
order that have emerged around the globe in response. Offering a radically new
understanding of the current stage of international economics as well as crucial
post-Marxist guidance for confronting capitalism in its newest form, The Violence of
Financial Capitalism is a valuable addition to the contemporary arsenal of
postfordist thought. This edition includes the glossary of the esoteric neolanguage
of financial capitalism—"Words in Crisis," from "AAA"
to "toxic asset"—written for the first English-language edition,
and offers a new afterword by Marazzi.