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Fictitious Capital Fictitious Capital Fictitious Capital How Finance is Appropriating Our Future Cedric Durand Translated by David Broder VERSO London • New York For Jeanne, Loul and Isidore Thetranslation of this books was supported by the Centre national du livre (CNL). Avec.lesoutiendu Cet ouvrage publie dans le cadre du programme d'aide ala publication beneficiedu soutien du Ministere des AffairesEtrangeres et du Service Culture! de l'Ambassade de France represente aux Etats-Unis. This work received support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States through their publishing assistance program. English-language edition first published by Verso 2017 Originally published in French as Le capital fictif © Les Prairies ordinaires 2014 Translation © David Broder 2017 All rights reserved The moral rights of the author have been asserted 13579108642 Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F oEG US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY11201 versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New LeftBooks ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-719-6 (PB) ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-284-5 (HB) ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-720-2 (UK EBK) ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-721-9 (US EBK) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Durand, Caedric, author. Title: Fictitious capital : how finance is appropriating our future I Caedric Durand ; translated by David Broder. Other titles: Capital fictif. English Description: London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2017.1 "Originally published in French as Le capital fictif: Les Prairies ordinaies, 2014:' I Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers:LCCN 2016os8soo I ISBN 9781784787196 (alk. paper} Subjects: LCSH: Finance. I Capitalism. Classification:LCC HG173.3 .D8713 20171 DDC 332-dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/20I6os8soo Typeset in Minion by MJ & N Gavan, Truro, Cornwall Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY Contents List of Ta bles and Figures vii Acknowledgements xi Introduction: TheSign of Autumn 1 1 Beyond Greed 7 2 Financial Instability 27 3 Fictitious Capital: The Genealogy of a Concept 41 4 The Contemporary Rise of Fictitious Capital 57 5 Financial Accumulation 75 6 Where Do Financial Profits Come From? 83 7 Finance in Service of the Metamorphoses of Capital 105 8 The Enigma of ProfitsWithout Accumulation 119 Epilogue 151 Index 157 List of Tables and Figures Data and sources are available online at cedricdurand.eu Table I: Basic categories of fictitiouscapital in Marx 54 Table 2: The fo rms and socio-political content of financial profits 10I Table 3: Bubbles, recessions and golden ages in historical perspective 116 Figure I: GDP growth in high-income countries (per cent growth) 3 Figure 2: Simple cycle of financial instability 3I Figure 3: The paradox of state intervention 33 Figure 4: Minskian financial supercycle 33 Figure s: US stock and home prices (I980 = 100) 36 Figure 6: US fiscalbalance and real interest rate 36 Figure 7: From excessive credit to over-investment: the destabilising character of fictitious capital, according to Hayek 47 Figure 8: Credit to the non-financial private sector (per cent of GDP) 6o Figure 9: Credit to the government sector (per cent of GDP) 6I Figure 10: Stock market capitalisation (per cent of GDP) 62 Figure u: Total weight of the basic forms of fictitious capital (per cent of GDP) 64 Figure I2: Daily foreign exchange transactions 70 Figure I3: Total outstanding amount of over-the-counter derivatives contracts 7I Figure I4: Assets of non-bank, non-insurance, non-pension fund, non-public financial intermediaries (per cent of GDP) 72 Figure IS: Gross value added of financialinsurance and real-estate activities (per cent of GDP) 76 Viii FICTITIOUS CAPITAL Figure 16: Gross value added by financial and insurance activities (per cent of GDP) 77 Figure 17: Financial and insurance activities gross operating surplus (per cent of total gross operating surplus) 77 Figure 1Sa: Non-financialcorporations' financialincome - France (per cent of gross operating profit) 79 Figure 1Sb: Non-financial corporations' financial income - Germany (per cent of gross operating profit) 79 Figure 1Sc: Non-financial corporations' financial income - Japan (per cent of gross operating surplus) So Figure 1Sd: Non-financialcorporations' financial income - UK (per cent of gross operating surplus) So Figure 1Se: Non-financial corporations' financial income- US (per cent of gross operating surplus) S1 Figure 19: Households and NPIHS debt (per cent of GDP) S5 Figure 20: Debt service by households and NPIHS S7 Figure 21: Market capitalisation and central bank assets 95 Figure 22: Socio-economic processes at the roots of financial profits 102 Figure 23: Gross fixed capital formation (per cent ofGDP) 120 Figure 24: Non-financial corporations' fixedcapital fo rmation (per cent of gross operating surplus) 120 Figure 25: The rentiers' revenge and the slowdown of accumulation 124 Figure 26a: Non-financial corporations financial payments - France (per cent of gross operating surplus) 125 Figure 26b: Non-financial corporationsfinancial payments - Germany (per cent of gross operating surplus) 125 Figure 26c: Non-financial corporationsfinancial payments - Japan (per cent of gross operating surplus) 126 Figure 26d: Non-financial corporations financial payments - UK (per cent of gross operating surplus) 126 Figure 26e: Non-financialcorporations financial payments - US (per cent of gross operating surplus) 127 Figure 27: Net debt to stakeholders and inventories as number of days of sales among major retailers 133 LIST OF TA BLES AND FIGURES iX Figure 28: The financial turn of investment and the slowdown of accumulation 136 Figure 29: Non-financial corporations' total financial income (per cent of gross operating surplus) 137 Figure 30: Non-financial corporations' net financial payments (per cent of gross operating surplus) 138 Figure 31: Globalisation and profits without domestic investment 143 Figure 32: Imports from emerging and developing countries (per cent of total imports) 146 Figure 33: FDI outflows (per cent of gross domestic fixed investment) 147 Figure 34: Gross fixed capital fo rmation by group of countries (per cent of GDP) 147 Figure 35: FDI income and payments, 2014 (billion US$) 149 Acknowledgements This book owes a lot to the unrelenting enthusiasm of Nicolas Vieilles­ cazes and Razmig Keucheyan. All hail Nicolas for his patient editing work! I am also very grateful to David Broder for his meticulous trans­ lation and to Verso's editors. I would especially like to thank Sebastian Budgen fo r his sober but constant support. I carried out my research at the Centre d'Economie de Paris Nord on the Villetaneuse campus of the Universite Paris-13, a great place to work. This book would never have seen the light of day if it were not for the countless discussions I had with colleagues there and the helping hand they provided. Here I am particularly thinking of Emma­ nuel Carre, Benjamin Coriat, David Flacher, Ariane Ghirardello, Dany Lang, Marc Lautier, Antonia Lopez-Villavicencio, Jonathan Marie, Jacques Mazier, Pascal Petit, Dominique Plihon, Nathalie Rey, Sandra Rigot, Francisco Serranito and Julien Vauday. So, too, the dynamic team of doctoral students and young postdocs communing at our lunchtime political-economy seminar: Raquel Almeida Ramos, Felix Boggio, Louison Cahen Fourot, Bruno Carballa, Matteo Cavallaro and Leonard Moulin. I should make special mention of the generous efforts of Robert Guttman, who took the time to read a firstversion of this work and discuss it with me in some depth. Tristan Auvray and Celine Baud were also kind enough to read over a draft of the first chapters and share their judicious suggestions. Gregoire Chamayou lent his attentive ear to the development of this book and shared his insights. Sebastian Budgen, Philippe Lege and Bruno Tinel each suggested valuable refer­ ences. Critical comments by Julien Vercueil, Guillaume Fondu and Eve Chiapello, as well as John Grahl's report preceding this English transla­ tion, allowed me to refine the text and to clear up certain ambiguities. My exchanges with Jerry Epstein, William Milberg, Andre Orlean, Riccardo Bellofiore and Eric Pineault helped fe ed my thinking. The arguments developed in the final chapter owe a great deal to my work Xii FICTITIOUS CAPITAL together with Engelbert Stockhammer and Sebastien Miroudot. The book as a whole also reflects my lively collaboration with Franc;:ois Chesnais, Esther Jeffers, Stathis Kouvelakis and Michel Husson, who all did much to inspire it. I would also like to thank Les Anges for having provided a perfect home for our editorial meetings, before they were cut down by fanatics' bullets on 13 November 2015. INTRODUCTION The Sign of Autumn One of the most remarkable developments in the rich countries since the 1970s has been the accelerated expansion of financial operations. The 2007-8 crisis and the long recession in which the world economy has been caught up ever since have brutally exposed the exorbitant economic and social cost of such financialisation. Yet nothing sug­ gests that our societies are on a path to freeing themselves from its grip. While there have been some efforts to exert tighter control over finance, they have not fundamentally challenged the relations that this sector has established with other spheres of the economy over recent decades. Financialisation is no epiphenomenon. It is
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