cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3264448

Lenin in Imperialism talks about the emergence of finance capital as the major driver of imperial conquests. These days we have seen trends of "financialisation" of western economies coupled with deindustrialisation.

I guess what confuses me is why this trend towards financialisation a thing where you cede real material industrial power in favour of large banks.

  • Kaplya
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Both Marx and Lenin had predicted the “industrialization” of finance capital. Before the 19th century, banking mostly existed in what Marx called the “usury capital”, i.e. interest extraction that concentrated wealth at the landlord class.

    Marx saw the emergence of the German financial system under industrial capitalism and predicted that finance capital would eventually be subordinated to industrial capital, allowing productive investment to be made to expand the industrial economy of the 19th century European powers. Lenin further developed this in his imperialism thesis.

    Marx had predicated his thesis on the bourgeois revolution overthrowing the landlord class (following the writings of Adam Smith and Ricardo), which would lead to the elimination of interest extraction/rentier economy under industrial capitalism. However, post-WWI saw the counter-revolution and the return of the landlord class as the financial class.

    In short, Marx and Lenin both predicted the “industrialization of finance capital”, but what transpired in the 20th century was the “financialization of industrial capital” that led to the de-industrialization of the US empire.

    I highly recommend reading this (rather long) primer by Michael Hudson based on his lecture to the Chinese School of Marxist Studies more than a decade ago. It is a very good introduction on how Capital Vol. 3 can be applied to the present day contexts.