Social scientists have begun debating financialization in the late 2000s much as they debated globalization in the 1990s, and this important book prepares the way by allowing readers to (re)define financialization for themselves.

General Introduction Section 1 History: Critique of the Rentier and Financier - Introduction 1. Against the Rentier and Financier R.H. Tawney2. Control, Liquidity and the "Community Interest" Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner Means3. Speculation, Cyclicality and the Euthanasia of the Rentier John Maynard KeynesSection 2 Agency Theory: The Value Maximizing Manager? - Introduction 4. Making Internal Control Systems Work Michael Jensen 5. Contracts, Discipline and Management Pay Henri L.Tosi et al6. Testing the Pay/ Performance Relation Eugene Fama 7. Whose Company is it Anyway? Paddy Ireland8. Financial Intermediaries: Working for Themselves? Peter Folkman et alSection 3 Political Economy: Accumulation and Innovation - Introduction 9. A Finance-Led Growth Regime? Robert Boyer10. Accumulation and the Profits of Finance Greta Krippner 11. Financialization and the Slowdown of Accumulation Engelbert Stockhammer 12. Financialization, Neoliberalism and Income Inequality in the USA Gérard Duménil and Dominique LévySection 4 Cultural Economy: Narrative and Performative Discrepancies - Introduction 13. Financialization of Daily Life Randy Martin14. The New Economy and a New Market Culture Nigel Thrift15. Performativity and the Black Scholes Model Donald MacKenzie and Yuval Millo 16. The Final Salary Pensions "Crisis" Paul Langley Section 5 Current Debates: Financialized Management - Introduction 17. The Finance Conception of the Firm Neil Fligstein 18. Shareholder Value and Corporate Governance William Lazonick and Mary O’Sullivan19. Logics of Bargaining in the German Automotive Industry Jürgen Kädtler and Hans Joachim Sperling 20. GE Under Jack Welch: Narrative, Performative and the Business Model Julie Froud et al

'The story of the past three decades is of how finance has shaped the world in its own image, greatly enriched itself in the process and has now taken the global economy to the brink of chaos. This book explains how this process happened and, just as importantly, opens a broad historical perspective on what should happen now.' Larry Elliott, Economics Editor, The Guardian'How do we make sense of the waves of financial innovation and crisis that sweep before us at an ever increasing pace? This set of readings is crucial for an understanding of these events and processes. Meticulously edited, each section is accompanied by thoughtful and measured commentary, and the introductory essay will surely become a key text in itself.' Professor Grahame Thompson, Open University