Financial Capital in the 21st Century: A New Theory of Speculative Capital

“A brilliant contribution to present-day discussions on Marx’s value theory, money, capital and finance, highlighting the cardinal regulatory role of the financial sphere in capitalism. Achim Szepanski, following Marx’s analyses, takes finance seriously. He shows that ‘financialization’ is not a deviation from some ‘good’ industrial capitalism, or a new, ‘predatory’, method of exploitation (‘exploitation by dispossession’ etc.), a ‘bad’ exploitation as opposed to the ‘good’ exploitation by the ‘productive’ capital, but a historic development
expressing the formal determinations innate in the capitalist mode of production.”
— John Milios, Author of The Origins of Capitalism as a Social System



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.



Achim Szepanski is the founder of the Electronic Music Labels Force Inc., and Mille Plateaux. His research focuses on speculative capital. His recent publications are Capitalisation 1 & 2, Non-Marxism, Capital and Power in the 21st Century, Imperialism, State-Fascism and the War Machines of Capital, and Ultrabablack of

Music. He is the Editor of the online magazine NON.