On 2011-02-07, at 11:20 PM, Julio Huato wrote:
> When exchange rates were allowed
> to float, the business of private hedging grew rapidly. Large pools
> of money started to gather....
I'd be curious to know from those who have made a careful study of Marx, what if anything he had to say about the 19th century market in agricultural futures? Were these earlier derivatives contracts viewed mostly as an integral and "historically progressive" development for managing risk in a capitalist economy, or as destabilizing speculative instruments which were symptomatic of capitalism in its final stages? Did he or any of his contemporaries have anything to say on the relationship of 19th century farm futures to "real" farm production which contribute to our understanding of the systemic role of today's global and much more varied multi-trillion derivatives markets, ie. "financialization"?