After the Great Complacence: Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform

This book provides an accessible cultural and political analysis of how our disorderly and financialized system of capitalism works, what led to the financial crisis that began in 2007, the policy debates about reform, and why democratic control is difficult after the events of 2008.

Ewald Engelen, University of Amsterdam;Ismail Erturk, Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change and Manchester Business School, University of Manchester;Julie Froud, Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change and Manchester Business School, University of Manchester;Sukhdev Johal, Department of Management, Royal Holloway;Adam Leaver, Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change and Manchester Business School, University of Manchester;Mick Moran, Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change and Manchester Business School, University of Manchester;Adriana Nilsson, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change and Manchester Business School, University of Manchester;Karel Williams, Centre for Research in Socio-Cultural Change and Manchester Business School, University of Manchester

Introduction; 1 After the Great Complacence: the Challenge of the Undisclosed and the Mystified; Section I: Not as it seems : Financial Innovation and the Undisclosed; 2 Derivatives: Conjuncture, Bricolage, and Circuits; 3 Hedge Funds and Private Equity as War Machines; 4 Banking for Themselves: the Transaction Generating Machine; Section 2: Beyond Democratic Control? Mystified Politics Before and After the Crisis; 5 Mystification Undermines Regulation Before 2007; 6 Closure: Distributive Coalition vs. Democratic Opening; 7 In Charge? Political Classes and Technocratic Elites; Conclusion; 8 What is To Be Done? Mobilising for Simpler, Sustainable Finance