Achim Szepanski – författare

The book’s central theme is to develop a new theory of speculative capital related to other forms of capital, the world market, and the state. Unlike most Marxist and heterodox theories, the book distinguishes credit and fictitious capital from speculative capital to show its hegemony today in the capital markets. Speculative capital structures and also controls the so-called “real capital.” The method is Marxist while also incorporating material from contemporary Marxist and heterodox authors like John Milios, Robert Meister, Tony Norfeld, Li Puma, Harald Strauß, Michael Heinrich, Suhail Malik, Bichler/Nitzan and Ellie Ayache. Offering a comprehensive study of the logic and mode of existence of capital in the 21st century, the book will be of interest to academics and students of monetary and financial economics alongside political economy.

This book analyses contemporary and future conditions of global finance and capitalism in an age of catastrophe. It illuminates the links between various crises that have beset the world economy in recent decades and sets these in philosophical context, drawing on the work of Marx, Bataille and Baudrillard to forge new understandings of the impact of capitalist hegemony on society and nature.

The book introduces the concept of the ‘over’ as a lens through which to reflect on capitalist excess and its negative consequences, such as over-accumulation of goods, over-pollution of the environment, and over-speculation of capital. In particular, it shines a light on the trends of financialization and stagflation, with chapters examining increasingly embedded features of the world economy such as hyper-inflation, the dominance of advanced economy central banks, the phenomenon of repurchase agreements, new asset managers for the ultra-wealthy and index funds to show how capitalist structures continue to drive inequality, ecological breakdown, and geopolitical precarity on a global scale. With a rigorous philosophical and theoretical framework, this book will appeal to political economists, Marxist economists and scholars interested in theories of capitalism.