Financial innovation and the descent of money: reading Niall Ferguson on Siegmund Warburg

Niall Ferguson’s biography of Siegmund Warburg probably came out just in time, in 2010, to be taken up as a topical work on a major City figure. Now some five years later one has to doubt whether the name of Siegmund Warburg signifies much at all. What was intended as a work to mark and celebrate the life of a financier now reads, just as validly, as an important work of historical scholarship. The attraction now lies in seeing how a career of heroic financial innovation has become submerged by a world of financial mayhem on an industrial scale to the extent that it is no longer possible to talk in terms of the banking values that so animated Siegmund Warburg - what he called the feu sacré

An urban narrative and the imperatives of the city

About the book: This incisive inter-disciplinary text provides a major contribution to the study of finance capital and the metropolis. It is the first authoritative account of the momentous changes in the organisation of finance capital that occurred in the 1980s. But it never contents itself with a mere record of events. Changes in finance are scrupulously and consistently related to changes in urban forms, notably metropolitan lifestyles and aesthetics

Introduction

This incisive inter-disciplinary text provides a major contribution to the study of finance capital and the metropolis. It is the first authoritative account of the momentous changes in the organisation of finance capital that occurred in the 1980s. But it never contents itself with a mere record of events. Changes in finance are scrupulously and consistently related to changes in urban forms, notably metropolitan lifestyles and aesthetics

Pure Relationality as a Sociological Theory of Communication

In order to explain the success of populist politicians use of social media, we need to subtract the social from relationality and separate social relationships from network theory applications. A pure theory of relationality is suggested by Werner Heisenberg’s breakthrough in quantum mechanics. It is argued that sociology, to its detriment, has failed to incorporate a theory of communication, one adequate to the explosion of social media and the recent rise of populist politics, here instanced by Donald Trump. Realizing the underlying importance of communication technology in all social relationships, and treating these two aspects in a complementary fashion, is the purpose of this essay in sociological theory

Central bank independence : a social economic and democratic critique

The advent of quantitative easing by the world's major central banks invites renewed questions about the meaning and role of central bank independence in an age of economic crisis. This article draws together insights from economic sociology, history and democratic theory to engage in further discussion about the proper role of central banks in democratic society. We stress some related themes. Our brief history of central banks aims to show how these banks have always been embedded in economic and political coalitions and conflicts, therefore qualifying the term independence; our study also aims to show that in satisficing between conflicting tasks, central banks need to maintain a balance between cognitive competences and normative expectations. Independence is better understood as a form of dependence on the coalition of interests that supported the financial climate prevailing before the global crisis of 2008, one of low wage-price inflation, high borrowing and debt, and loss of prudential control. We argue that independence amounts to a form of re-privatisation of central banks, and that they are increasingly suborned to the pressures of financial markets. At the same time, asset price inflation has sacrificed growth and employment and therefore prolongs the crisis. The economic measures now demanded by the financial crisis prompt new doubts about the independent central bank experiment, potentially in favour of the ex ante model of governmental oversight of central banks.19 page(s