Overview

During the last two decades, there has been much scholarly and popular interest in the financialization of the American economy--why the turn to finance has taken place, what constituted it, and what has come out of it. In Disembedded, Basak Kus draws from the theories of Karl Polanyi--one of the greatest and most influential political economists of the twentieth century--to answer these questions. Focused primarily on the state's regulatory role in a dominantly financialized economy, Kus examines how neoliberal principles influenced the evolution of American regulatory policies, shaping the financial sector's operations and practices. Her narrative traces the trajectory of these interactions, highlighting critical junctures, policy decisions, and market outcomes that culminated in the financial crisis. Offering historical insights into the financial crisis spanning 2007-2010 and its ensuing influence on American politics and democracy, Disembedded provides a broad-ranging and systemic explanation of the American political economy, especially the regulatory landscape that shaped the patterns of financialization.

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9780197764879

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Reviews

Basak Kus has gifted us a sophisticated analysis of the twin currents of financialization and neoliberalism. Rejecting simple references to Ronald Reagan or Milton Friedman, Kus documents the fundamental political, ideological, and economic forces that have created a risk society, especially the risks generated by financialization. Economic theories were crucial in creating not only deregulation, but its evil siblings of policy drift in the face of financialization and neutered regulation. There is no room in the profoundly micro-economic regulatory model for systemic risk, so when the system became risky there was no way for the government to see it, much less regulate. This is a book worth reading. * Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst * Taking the Polanyian perspective, Basak Kus presents a persuasive account of the recent growth of what she terms 'disembedded financialization' * a financialized economy that lacks basic protections against mitigating risks, including industry-wide systemic risks, broader socio-economic risks and financial risks borne by individual consumers. Writing in a clear prose that makes the book accessible to a wider audience, Kus's lucid analysis underscores the social and human costs of financialization, and the real threat it can pose for the future of our democracy.Alya Guseva, Boston University, and author of Into the Read: The Birth of the Credit Card Market in Postcommunist Russia *

Basak Kus has gifted us a sophisticated analysis of the twin currents of financialization and neoliberalism. Rejecting simple references to Ronald Reagan or Milton Friedman, Kus documents the fundamental political, ideological, and economic forces that have created a risk society, especially the risks generated by financialization. Economic theories were crucial in creating not only deregulation, but its evil siblings of policy drift in the face of financialization and neutered regulation. There is no room in the profoundly micro-economic regulatory model for systemic risk, so when the system became risky there was no way for the government to see it, much less regulate. This is a book worth reading. * Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst * Taking the Polanyian perspective, Basak Kus presents a persuasive account of the recent growth of what she terms 'disembedded financialization' * a financialized economy that lacks basic protections against mitigating risks, including industry-wide systemic risks, broader socio-economic risks and financial risks borne by individual consumers. Writing in a clear prose that makes the book accessible to a wider audience, Kus's lucid analysis underscores the social and human costs of financialization, and the real threat it can pose for the future of our democracy.Alya Guseva, Boston University, and author of Into the Read: The Birth of the Credit Card Market in Postcommunist Russia * Taking the Polanyian perspective, Basak Kus presents a persuasive account of the recent growth of what she terms 'disembedded financialization'-a financialized economy that lacks basic protections against mitigating risks, including industry-wide systemic risks, broader socio-economic risks and financial risks borne by individual consumers. Writing in a clear prose that makes the book accessible to a wider audience, Kus's lucid analysis underscores the social and human costs of financialization, and the real threat it can pose for the future of our democracy. * Alya Guseva, Boston University, and author of Into the Read: The Birth of the Credit Card Market in Postcommunist Russia *

Author Information

Basak Kus is Associate Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. She teaches and writes about the interplay of the state, capitalism, and democracy. Her work to date has focused on themes such as economic crises and liberalization reforms, the restructuring of the welfare state, state-labor union relations, regulation of the financial sector, financialization, debt, and the politics of inequality.

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