Resocialising finance to exit the crisis

Modern financial systems betray the social nature of finance. Finance has come increasingly to rely on what Keynes regarded as ‘the most anti-social’ of principles, namely the ‘fetish of liquidity’, which implies the transformation of all relationships into a negotiable security, through the liberalisation of capital markets, the adoption of fair value accounting, the rise of securitisation and other financial innovations. After discussing the theoretical and practical implications of failing to recognise the social dimensions of finance, the chapter explores various routes for its resocialisation.