The holy trinity of ideological concepts for the modern capitalist age
are neoliberalism, globalisation and financialisation. Of these three concepts
financialisation occupies a position akin to that of the holy ghost, as the
least understood and least discussed of the three. Financialisation is a
reality under modern capitalism. Marxists need to examine how much it has
changed capitalism, and how far the system remains fundamentally the same.

Stock exchanges in Britain and the USA have
been on the slide over the past few days. The reason is not hard to seek. The
FTSE has been spooked by bank shares collapsing. Barclays, for instance, saw
25% of its share price shaved off in one hour last Friday (16.01.09).
This was the day after the bank announced 2,100 job losses.It’s starting to look like the time back in
October when it seemed that banks such as Barclays and the Bank of Scotland
(now HBOS) that had been in existence for hundreds of years would be destroyed
by a share collapse in a matter of hours.

Graham Turner has published The
Credit Crunch.  (The credit crunch by
Graham Turner, published by Pluto Press) Turner is an independent consultant
who worked in the City of London for many years.  What singles out this book is that it claims
to approach the problem from a socialist perspective, or at least it has been
adopted by the left.  Turner has spoken
at many left forums in recent months.

What is Graham Turner’s message?  He outlines his aim in the preface: “the
roots of this crisis must be understood to ensure there is no repeat of the
flawed economic policies that have created the biggest credit bust since the
1930s.  If we understand the causes, the
damage can be mitigated”.