Synopses & Reviews
In a lively critique of how international and comparative political economy misjudge the relationship between global markets and states, this book demonstrates the central place of the American state in today's world of globalized finance. The contributors set aside traditional emphases on military intervention, looking instead to economics.
Review
"Panitch and Konings do a marvellous job in bringing together a set of innovative and rigorous chapters that throw critical light on the obscure and complex nature of the American Empire and its role in shaping the landscape of contemporary capitalism. This book is essential reading in understanding how the world works." -- Susanne Soederberg, Canada Research Chair, Global Development Studies, Queens University, Canada
"This work, written by some of the world's finest scholars on the topic, breaks new ground by demonstrating how finance is anchored in the social structure of the United States in profound and often unique ways. This takes the book far beyond routine assessments of how a dominant political and economic power translates its superiority into financial clout; compared to Europe, let alone the rest of the world, American capitalism also connects a wide variety of interests directly into the financial system. If Gramsci once said that in the United States hegemony grows directly in the factory, this collection demonstrates that it is also directly translated into hegemony in the global financial system. Are we now witness to its demise? At a time of profound financial disturbance, no student of global political economy can afford to ignore this eminent collection." -- Kees van der Pijl, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex, UK, and author of Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq
Synopsis
This volume offers a unique historical perspective on the ways that everyday life in early modern London both challenged and constituted manhood. Through the close examination of literary texts, primary sources, and the material artifacts of urbanity, leading authors in the field of early modern studies explore a range of bad behaviorsbinge drinking at taverns, dicing at gaming houses, and procuring prostitutes at barbershopsin order to challenge the notion that a corrupt city ruined innocent young men. This collection shows that alternative modes of manhood radically revised the emotional, imaginative, and cultural geographies of London.
About the Author
LEO PANITCH is the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor at York University, Toronto and the co-editor of the Socialist Register.
MARTIJN KONINGS recently completed a PhD on the rise of American Finance at York University and is currently a Researcher in the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Table of Contents
Preface * Introduction--
L.Panitch and M.Konings * Part I: Contours and Sources of Imperial Finance * Finance and American Empire--
L.Panitch and S.Gindin * American Finance and Empire in Historical Perspective--
M.Konings * Part II: Constructing the Pillars of Imperial Finance * US Structural Power and the Internationalization of the US Treasury--
D.Sarai * Neo-Liberalism and the Federal Reserve--
E.Newstadt * US Power and the International Bond Market: Financial Flows and the Construction of Risk Value--
S.Aquanno * Towards the Americanization of European Finance? The Case of Finance-Led Accumulation in Germany--
T.Sablowski * Accounting for Financial Capital. American Hegemony and the Conflict over International Accounting Standards--
T.Sablowski * From Bretton Woods to Neoliberal Reforms: The International Financial Institutions and American Power--
R.Felder * The Role of Financial Discipline in Imperial Strategy--
C.Rude * Conclusion--M.Konings and L.Panitch