Achim Szepanski: The Capital in the 21st Century

On Wednesday, March 7, 2018, Achim Szepanski will be giving a lecture on his book »The Capital in the 21^st Century«, which was published in January 2018. 

Achim Szepanski is presenting an extensive study on the logic and the existence of the capital in the 21^st century. He strives for a radically Marxist understanding of the intrinsic role that the modern financial system plays for present capitalism. If the capitalist principle is the engine of the breathing monster called total capital, then the financial system is its central nervous system.

The neoliberal financialization model proves to be a bundle of effective strategies through which the economic world order has been restructured, globalized and developed. This order consists of complex networks where large banks, with their power of credit formation, insurance companies and hedge funds occupy important positions. These institutions drive the increase of speculative capital on a 24/7 basis, the instruments of which are derivatives.

Even in their most exotic forms, derivatives represent a new form of speculative money capital and a technology of abstract risk, which organizes capitalist power relations worldwide. Speculative capital not only creates the conditions of its own cycles, but also deeply penetrates the structures of industrial production and man’s everyday life. The financial system must finally be examined as a leading player in world economy, in order to understand the logic and the existence of global capital.