1980년대 이후 미국 경제의 ‘금융화’

Abstract

Two typical indices indicating financialisation of economy are the relatively rapid increase in asset and profit of financial corporations relative to non-fi- nancial ones, and the increasing portion of portfolio income in the profit of non-financial corporations. According to US statistics, financialization jumped during the 1980s and remained at a high level after that. The reasons for this jump can be attributed to the progress in globalization of capital, revolu- tions in financial services (intensified competition, revised State regulations and new financial instruments such as derivatives), and low profitability in in- dustrial sectors. This financialisation does not mean 'domination' of industrial capital by fi- nancial capital. As financial capital is unproductive and depends on the sur- plus-value created in the production process of industrial capital, both capitals are mutually complementary. But, at the cyclical crisis phase, financial capital refuses to ease shortage of money in industrial capital, leading to the rate of interest reaching its highest point, bringing about the bankruptcy of in- dustrial capital. Here we can see the tension between industrial and financial capitals. But this tension is not due to financial capital domination. The fact that non-financial corporations earn interests, dividends and capi- tal gains by engaging in financial activities does not mean the fusion or coa- lescence of industrial and financial capitals which Rudolf Hilferding talked about in his Finance Capital(1911). It is because financial capital can achieve its highest profitability by maintaining liquidity and mobility, and thus re- fuses to be affixed to a certain industrial capital. The phenomenon of world-wide financialisation greatly helps to maintain the U.S. Empire, because the U.S. government reaps vast seigniorage due to the fact that the U.S. dollar is the world currency. Since foreign govern- ments, corporations and individuals buy and hold large amounts of U.S. dol- lars and U.S. dollar-denominated financial assets, the U.S. Empire escapes the usual consequences of unfavorable trade balances, fiscal deficits, unproductive military expenditures and the high cost of endless wars. But if the U.S. dollar lost its status of world currency, due to depreciation for example, the U.S. Empire would break down. The world-wide financialisation has been accompanied by many world fi- nancial crises including the Mexican foreign debt crisis in 1983, the Asian foreign exchange crisis in 1997 and the Argentine financial crisis in 2002. The resulting burdens of these crises were not borne by the financial capital of the imperial countries but by the people of the periphery countries in the form of unemployment, poverty and inequality.