I assume you're saying because of the fed, but wouldn't it be more appropriate to mark JP Morgan's efforts to create monopolies throughout the economy a better start point?
Well, this is why I pointed out McKinley and also stated the process did start shortly after the founding. True financialization only after Morgan and his friends met and formed the Fed tho, which was 1913. Once the Fed was in place, they could vastly expand the amount of available credit, bribe and purchase without restraint, and start the type of economy to which we are all now accustomed. Importantly, this pattern is a direct inversion of “capitalism.” In capitalism, the present is leveraged for the future. In “financialism,” the future is leveraged for the present.
Where have you learned about this? I’ve been casually spelunking into the US economic past, mostly via Wikipedia, but I’d love to know if there are other better sources to check out. Especially around where you drew that conclusion of “capitalism” vs “financialism”
Regarding capitalism vs financialism, that’s my own observation of the present vs reading about the past, and having studied economics. Today, there is no saving, and most of the wealthiest people are also the most indebted. This transition occurred as a byproduct of constant inflation. Even “low” inflation rates will push people from saving into investment (even if passive). If you sit on money you lose year over year. You’ll be forced to invest. Price inflation is therefore seen first in stocks, bonds, some derivatives markets, then in property and every other asset. As interest rates go down, they eventually fall below the inflation rate. This essentially makes money free if a person knows that he/she will make a return that exceeds the inflation rate. Eventually, with the collection and accumulation of debt obligations, those debt obligations themselves become a goods to be traded. Liabilities become assets. Future funds are used not only to fund the present, but they are then leveraged to create more credit and expand the pool of debt obligations and increase the inflation rate. This is financialism as a distinct economic system; the entire economy is built upon financial products and not upon physical wealth. Further, it is built upon future claims on production instead of on sacrifices made in the present. Financialism is then the temporal opposite of capitalism.
