Public Banks In The Age Of Financialization

This book asks the important question of whether public banks are a better alternative to profit-seeking private banks. Do public banks provide finance for development? Do they serve as stability anchors in financial markets? What kind of governance keeps public banks accountable to the public? Theoretically the book draws on the works of Minsky for the question on stability and on interpretative policy analysis for the issue of governance. It compares empirically three countries with significant public banks: Brazil, Germany, and India.

This is a book in search of an alternative to the discredited investor-owned banks that have brought the rich countries into crisis and the world economy into a long period of austerity. It finds customer-owned banks Ð credit unions, co-operative banks, building societies Ð have hardly been affected by the crisis and continue to operate according to their organisational DNA: low-risk, close to the customer, underpinned by real savings, and still lending to SMEs to protect jobs and local economies. They are big business Ð in some countries with over 40% of the market Ð but networked in smaller, democratic societies whose origins go back to 1850s Germany. The book explores their history and current situation, measures the impact of the banking crisis, makes a systematic study of their advantages, compares them to alternatives (savings banks and micro-finance institutions), and investigates their supervision and governance structures. It provides hard evidence for the superiority of customer-owned banks. Finance in an Age of Austerity will appeal to public policy analysts and political commentators, academics and students interested in current issues concerning banking regulation, supervision and governance. Social commentators and campaigners concerned with providing an ethical alternative to Ôcasino capitalismÕ and social economists wanting to develop a critique of the investor-owned banking system will also find this book invaluable. It will be essential reading for banking specialists interested in broadening their understanding of a hidden sector that, since the crisis, has become much more significant.

''Thomas Marois'' book, States, Banks and Crisis, is highly attractive to development scholars because of the combinations of topics it discusses, the countries analyzed, and its characterization of financial capital as dominant. In the last century the states of Mexico and Turkey promoted robust economic growth guided by powerful public banking organizations. The book captures how this came to a halt since the 1980s through the privatizing of economic activity, especially banking activities in ways that induced steep banking crises that halted economic development. Marois discusses the theory and history of Mexico and Turkey in depth offering an excellent analysis of their neoliberal experiences while proposing new alternatives to reshape the linkages between the financial sector and economic growth.'' Noemí Levy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City ''This book attempts to provide a critique of neoclassical and liberal political economists as well as the much-hyped and influential "varieties of capitalism" approach, a variant of institutionalist political economy, by claiming that they are dismissive of "the structural power of financial capital". In this regard, it makes an important contribution to the critical political economy tradition with its detailed analysis of the relations between the state, finance capital and labour in the context of two "emerging capitalisms", Mexico and Turkey. Thereby, it enhances our understanding of how the financial crises function as driving forces of neoliberal transformation by initiating new forms of state specific to peripheral capitalism.'' Galip Yalman, Middle East Technical University, Turkey ''As analysts fixated on the financial crisis convulsing the core capitalist countries, the so-called "emerging markets" also saw stunning tranformations in the world of finance capitalism. This remarkable study by Tom Marois carefully dissects the evolution of the banking industry in two of the most significant state-led capitalisms, Turkey and Mexico, as they formed finance-led neoliberal economic policies. The consequences for their development strategies makes for sober reading. This is a unique and crucial study for students of the comparative political economy of contemporary capitalism.'' Greg Albo, York University, Canada ''Financialization is as financialization does. It is a mix of the universal characteristics of finance within capitalism, its contemporary powerful hold over, even defining feature of, the neoliberal age, and the myriad of specific global markets and countries into which it has penetrated. In a stunning work of comparative political economy, Marois brilliantly weaves together these aspects of finance drawing on both innovative theoretical insights and primary case study evidence from Turkey and Mexico to furnish what will become a classic and original contribution to the understanding of financialization in the developing world, highlighting both the role of the state in the era of putatively free markets and the possibility, indeed, necessity of alternatives.'' Ben Fine, University of London, UK ''Marois has provided us with a fascinating, rigorous and important study of the rise and persistence of finance capitalism in Mexico and Turkey. Drawing on an innovative historical materialist lens, Marois'' analysis reveals the struggles, contradictions, and continued significance of the banking sector in defining and redefining neoliberal-led development in these so-called "emerging markets". This is a very welcome addition to critical understandings of the role of finance and states in the global South.'' Susanne Soederberg, Queen''s University, Canada Thomas Marois'' groundbreaking interpretation of banking and development in Mexico and Turkey builds on a Marxian-inspired framework premised on understanding states and banks as social relationships alongside crisis and labor as vital to finance today. The book''s rich historical and empirical content reveals definite institutionalized relationships of power that mainstream political economists often miss. While leading to a timely analysis of the impact of the Great Recession on Mexico and Turkey, the major contribution of States, Banks and Crisis in its account of emerging finance capitalism. This is defined as the current phase of accumulation wherein the interests of financial capital are fused in the state apparatus as the institutionalized priorities and overarching social logic guiding the actions of state managers and government elites, often to the detriment of labor. This interdisciplinary and accessible study on banking and development will prove to be an important resource for upper-level undergraduates, graduates, and scholars in economics, development studies, political science, political economy, development finance, sociology, international relations and international political economy.

Public banks are banks located within the public sphere of a state. They are pervasive, with more than 900 institutions worldwide, and powerful, with tens of trillions in assets. Public banks are neither essentially good nor bad. Rather, they are dynamic institutions, made and remade by contentious social forces. As the first single-authored book on public banks, this timely intervention examines how these institutions can confront the crisis of climate finance and catalyse a green and just transition. The author explores six case studies across the globe, demonstrating that public banks have acquired the representative structures, financial capacity, institutional knowledge, collaborative networks, and geographical reach to tackle decarbonisation, definancialisation, and democratisation. These institutions are not without contradictions, torn as they are between contending public and private interests in class-divided society. Ultimately, social forces and struggles shape how and if public banks serve the public good.

In Public Health Systems in the Age of Financialization, Ana Carolina Cordilha unpacks policy shifts that have transformed public health systems into vehicles for financial speculation and capital accumulation. While it is commonly thought that these systems are being cut back in the period of financialization, the author shows that current changes in public health financing go far beyond budget cuts and privatization measures. She examines how public health systems are adopting financial instruments and participating in financial accumulation strategies, with harmful impacts on transparency, democratic accountability, and health service provision. With an in-depth study of both the French and Brazilian systems, Cordilha explores the different ways in which this process unfolds in central and peripheral countries.

In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.

From award-winning economic historian Sanford M. Jacoby, a fascinating and important study of the labor movement and shareholder capitalism Since the 1970s, American unions have shrunk dramatically, as has their economic clout. Labor in the Age of Finance traces the search for new sources of power, showing how unions turned financialization to their advantage. Sanford Jacoby catalogs the array of allies and finance-based tactics labor deployed to stanch membership losses in the private sector. By leveraging pension capital, unions restructured corporate governance around issues like executive pay and accountability. In Congress, they drew on their political influence to press for corporate reforms in the wake of business scandals and the financial crisis. The effort restrained imperial CEOs but could not bridge the divide between workers and owners. Wages lagged behind investor returns, feeding the inequality identified by Occupy Wall Street. And labor’s slide continued. A compelling blend of history, economics, and politics, Labor in the Age of Finance explores the paradox of capital bestowing power to labor in the tumultuous era of Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Dodd-Frank.