Finance capitalism

Financial capital comprises mainly the held by banks and other financial intermediaries such as insurance companies, building societies and investment companies capital.

Marxist use

The term was coined by Austro-Marxists Rudolf Hilferding. In his book, The financial capital (1910 ), he describes a stage of capitalism, in which the concentration is a major engine for reaching the highest stage of capitalist concentration in the form of trusts and cartels within the banking system. Thus the dependence of the industry is growing by the banks. An increasing proportion of the required investment capital is provided by the banks available, in possession of a growing share of industrial capital goes. It comes to a process of concentration of bank capital, at the end point of the bank or banking group receives the disposition of all of the money capital. " Such a central bank" would then be able to control the entire social production. " Hilferding associated it with the idea of ​​mitigating the crises through the finance capitalist mega- socialization of industry and banking agglomerations.

The concept of financial capital was important for the social democratic theory of organized capitalism and the Leninist theory of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. Within the concept of Marxism this use is controversial.

Anti-Semitic use

On the social scientist Werner Sombart and the Nazi economic policy makers Gottfried Feder, the distinction between " -creating " industrial capital and " raffendem " financial capital goes back, with the rapacious finance capital was identified with the "Jewish- international high finance ." In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler differs citing Gottfried Feder " the two types of capital ," the "pure capital as a last result of the creative work " and a " capital whose existence solely on speculation" based.

Even today, the word finance capital contained anti-Semitic connotations. (see also Structural anti-Semitism ).

Financial market capitalism

→ Main article: financial-market capitalism

In terms such as " financial-market capitalism " or " financial capitalism " a presumed dominance of the institutions of the financial market to the real economy is described.