[lbo-talk] Responsibilities

[brad bauerly]

On the issue of finance and derivatives as smart or stupid- I cannot
recommend strongly enough Dick Bryan and Michael Rafferty's book Capitalism
with Derivatives.  Not only does it show that financial derivatives mark a
new period of capitalism- with associated shifts in the ownership and
control relationship and some interesting things could be said about how
this changes the relationship between petty bourg and prols with owners- but
it is also a very nice materialist understanding of neoliberalism
(contra Harvey's rather idealist one).  You simply cannot dismiss
derivatives due to the recent financial problems which are nothing more than
scams on the periphery of a much larger issue.  Derivative markets are so
large and play such a massive role in how capitalism operates today that
there really is no way of getting rid of them, unless we rid ourselves of
the whole system.  To see them as stupid or as merely gambling is to miss
their importance because of an unwillingness to see the shifts in capitalism
before ones eyes.  While it might be fun to see the class that rules as
stupid, it does nothing to aid in the transcendence of that rule.

Brad