Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation
Abstract This article explores some aspects of money as a social relation. Starting from Polanyi, it explores the nature of money as a non-commodity, real commodity, quasi-commodity, and fictitious commodity. The development of credit-debt relations is important in the last respect, especially in ma...
Published in: | Finance and Society |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 http://financeandsociety.ed.ac.uk/article/download/1369/1898 http://financeandsociety.ed.ac.uk/article/download/1369/1944 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S2059599900000042 |
id |
crcambridgeupr:10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcambridgeupr:10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 2024-06-23T07:55:09+00:00 Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation Jessop, Bob 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 http://financeandsociety.ed.ac.uk/article/download/1369/1898 http://financeandsociety.ed.ac.uk/article/download/1369/1944 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S2059599900000042 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Finance and Society volume 1, issue 1, page 20-37 ISSN 2059-5999 journal-article 2015 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 2024-06-05T04:04:15Z Abstract This article explores some aspects of money as a social relation. Starting from Polanyi, it explores the nature of money as a non-commodity, real commodity, quasi-commodity, and fictitious commodity. The development of credit-debt relations is important in the last respect, especially in market economies where money in the form of coins and banknotes plays a minor role. This argument is developed through some key concepts from Marx concerning money as a fetishised and contradictory social relation, especially his crucial distinction, absent from Polanyi, between money as money and money as capital, each with its own form of fetishism. Attention then turns to Minsky's work on Ponzi finance and what one might describe as cycles of the expansion of easy credit and the scramble for hard cash. This analysis is re-contextualised in terms of financialisation and finance-dominated accumulation, which promote securitisation and the autonomisation of credit money, interest-bearing capital. The article ends with brief reflections on the role of easy credit and hard cash in the surprising survival of neo-liberal economic and political regimes since the North Atlantic Financial Crisis became evident. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Cambridge University Press Finance and Society 1 1 20 37 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract This article explores some aspects of money as a social relation. Starting from Polanyi, it explores the nature of money as a non-commodity, real commodity, quasi-commodity, and fictitious commodity. The development of credit-debt relations is important in the last respect, especially in market economies where money in the form of coins and banknotes plays a minor role. This argument is developed through some key concepts from Marx concerning money as a fetishised and contradictory social relation, especially his crucial distinction, absent from Polanyi, between money as money and money as capital, each with its own form of fetishism. Attention then turns to Minsky's work on Ponzi finance and what one might describe as cycles of the expansion of easy credit and the scramble for hard cash. This analysis is re-contextualised in terms of financialisation and finance-dominated accumulation, which promote securitisation and the autonomisation of credit money, interest-bearing capital. The article ends with brief reflections on the role of easy credit and hard cash in the surprising survival of neo-liberal economic and political regimes since the North Atlantic Financial Crisis became evident. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jessop, Bob |
spellingShingle |
Jessop, Bob Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
author_facet |
Jessop, Bob |
author_sort |
Jessop, Bob |
title |
Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
title_short |
Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
title_full |
Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
title_fullStr |
Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: Critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
title_sort |
hard cash, easy credit, fictitious capital: critical reflections on money as a fetishised social relation |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 http://financeandsociety.ed.ac.uk/article/download/1369/1898 http://financeandsociety.ed.ac.uk/article/download/1369/1944 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S2059599900000042 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Finance and Society volume 1, issue 1, page 20-37 ISSN 2059-5999 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2218/finsoc.v1i1.1369 |
container_title |
Finance and Society |
container_volume |
1 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
20 |
op_container_end_page |
37 |
_version_ |
1802647611067334656 |