Financialization and the US Economy

Profound transformations have taken place both in the US and the global economy, most especially in the realm of finance. Financial markets and transactions have been growing continuously in size and in importance while finance in general has acquired an increasingly prominent position in the economy. Ozgur Orhangazi brings together a comprehensive analysis of financialization in the US economy that encompasses historical, theoretical, and empirical sides of the issues. He explores the origins and consequences of the dramatic rise of financial markets in the US economy and focuses on the impacts of this process of 'financialization' on the operations of the non-financial corporate sector.The book starts with a brief review of what financialization means and then documents the facts about financialization before moving on to provide a historical perspective on the evolution of financialization and its proximate causes. Next, the book compares various theoretical and empirical perspectives in an attempt to clarify the limits of our knowledge and outline what we know about the phenomenon and what we do not. In the second part, the author further explores the relationship between the financial and nonfinancial sectors of the economy and focuses on the effects of financialization on capital accumulation.The author provides a framework for analyzing the relationship between financialization and capital accumulation and offers evidence that the increase in nonfinancial corporations' (NFCs) financial investment rates and payments to financial markets have had negative effects on the real investment rates of NFCs. Scholars and students working on the issues of financialization or interested in financial markets, investment, and capital accumulation will find this a valuable addition to their collection, as will the serious general reader who wants to learn more about the causes and effects of the transformation of financial markets.