Neat table from the conclusion of Carlotta Perez's _Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital_. Financial innovations sorted from most helpful to the real economy to most parasitic on it
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
The problem, not her fault, it's everywhere in orthodox econ, is that you also need to ask about what the underlying asset does with respect to actual human needs. Not as a normative distinction, but just to understand what it does in the world. VC could fund moonshots, or NFTs.
Real estate could be real shelter or tax shelter. The bond market can discipline government investment into the "real" economy. Etc etc. The real economy - fake economy distinction is attractive and politically useful but it's its own kind of obfuscation via abstraction
Why does it feel like private equity would be listed at the top of her list among sources of capital but *should* be at the bottom of the list among the parasites?
Comments