Financialization as a core problem for a "Social Europe"

Abstract

For more than three decades, increasing financialisation has been a core feature of the European economy. This process does not only lead to economic instability, but also to social inequality. A driving force of financialisation in Europe are the internal market institutions of the European Union, aggravated through the introduction of the Euro and the programmes for rescuing the common currency. The European Union, principally, should be the most suitable institution to limit financialisation in favour of a more social Europe, given that it is often considered to be a shield against the harsh winds of globalisation. However, both the legal foundations as well as the political power relations within the Union are more likely to rather pave the way towards a deepening of financialisation and social inequality.

Full text

Revista de economía mundial 46, 2017, 27-48
ISSN: 1576-0162
FinancialiSation aS the core problem For a “Social europe”
La financiarización como ProbLema fundamentaL en La cons-
trucción de una “euroPa sociaL”
Andreas Nölke
Goethe University
a.noelke@soz.uni-frankfurt.de
Recibido: junio de 2016; aceptado: febrero de 2017
abStract
For more than three decades, increasing financialisation has been a core
feature of the European economy. This process does not only lead to eco-
nomic instability, but also to social inequality. A driving force of financialisation
in Europe are the internal market institutions of the European Union, aggra-
vated through the introduction of the Euro and the programmes for rescuing
the common currency. The European Union, principally, should be the most
suitable institution to limit financialisation in favour of a more social Europe,
given that it is often considered to be a shield against the harsh winds of glo-
balisation. However, both the legal foundations as well as the political power
relations within the Union are more likely to rather pave the way towards a
deepening of financialisation and social inequality.
Keywords: Financialization; European Union; Social Europe; Crisis.

reSumen
Durante más de tres décadas, la profundización del proceso de financi-
arización ha constituido un elemento nuclear de la economía europea. Dicho
proceso no solo ha generado inestabilidad económica, sino también desigual-
dad social. En Europa uno de los motores de dicha financiarización ha sido el
funcionamiento de las propias instituciones de la Unión Europea, agravado
por la introducción del euro y por la aplicación de los programas de rescate
de la moneda común. Dado que suele ser considerada como un escudo contra
algunas de las consecuencias más negativas de la globalización, la Unión Eu-
ropea debería constituirse en la institución preeminente a la hora de limitar el
proceso de financiarización, al objeto de favorecer una Europa más social. No
obstante, tanto los fundamentos que la constituyen, como las relaciones de
poder que operan dentro de la Unión, hacen que sea más probable que ésta se
limite a facilitar el camino para una profundización tanto de la financiarización
como de la desigualdad social.
Palabras clave: Financiarización; Unión Europea; Europa social; Crisis.

Revista de economía mundial 46, 2017, 27-48
1In current debates about the European Union and its crises, the defend-
ers of the Union – particularly social democrats and major labour unions such
as the German IG Metall and the European Trade Union Federation – place
great emphasis on the notion that the EU serves as an important social pro-
tection against the unwelcome features of economic globalisation. In devising
the notion of a “Social Europe”, it is argued that the European Union is able to
make important contributions to ameliorating the high degrees of inequality
and poverty that exist in Europe (Grozelier et al. 2010, Social Europe 2015,
Kern 2016). Thus, the notion of a “Social Europe” is generally conceived much
broader than the EU’s social policies - which are very limited anyway - and
rather refers to the combined effects of various EU policies in order to protect
European citizens again the harsh winds of globalisation (Dannreuther 2014).
Financialisation can be considered as an especially aggressive form of eco-
nomic globalisation. In comparison to markets for physical goods, both the
volume and the speed of transnational financial movements are much higher.
This not only leads to a higher degree of volatility and frequent crises, but also
implies a powerful position for the owners of financial assets. The ownership of
these assets very often is strongly concentrated, thereby aggravating the chal-
lenges arising from a concentration of economic power and from the instability
of financial sector companies. Correspondingly, the way the European Union
deals with financialisation is an ideal test case in order to check whether the
notion of “Social Europe” has some substance, in that it can indeed offer some
form of social protection against the most immediate results of financialisa-
tion, or rather serves as a loose slogan for defending the institution against the
growing number of grievances by people suffering from the socially adverse
effects of globalisation.
In order answer this question, we need to deal with a variety of interrelated
issues, some of which are also taken up in more detail in other contributions
to this special section. First, we need to define what financialisation actually is
(section 1) and how extensive this phenomenon has become in Europe (sec-
tion 2). Second, we need to clarify in how far and in what ways financialisation
leads to economic inequality (section 3) as well as to financial crises and their
disastrous effects for the poor (section 4). Third, we need to study the political
pathways leading to financialization (section 5), in order to be able to devise
1 I am grateful to Laura Horn, Jorge Garcia-Arias and to two anonymous reviewers for their comments.
Research assistance by Johannes Petry is gratefully acknowledged.

30 AndreAs nölke
options for reversing this process, given its negative social consequences (sec-
tion 6). With regard to the latter two questions, the role of the European Union
both in strengthening and in potentially overcoming financialization is particu-
larly important for our purposes. After finding answers to this set of questions,
we can finally return to the overall question whether the European Union – re-
ferred to as a “Social Europe” – provides protection against financialization, or
whether the European Union rather actively contributes to the financialisation
process and the related problems (section 7).
Given the many questions we need to deal with in order to establish wheth-
er the claim of a “Social Europe” is valid for the case of financial globalisation,
this article is unable to go into depth with regard to a specific definitional,
theoretical or empirical discussion of financialisation, in contrast to the other
contributions to this special issue. Its purpose is rather to connect a number
of existing scholarly contributions on financialisation and on financial sector
governance in a way that enables us to answer the above question – a ques-
tion that has become very prominent in the recent political debate about the
fundamental crisis of the European Union.
1. FinancialiSation and itS variouS FaceS
Since the 2008 financial crisis the process of financialisation has become
much more prominent, as well as ambivalent, in public perception. In a simple
and superficial way, we can define financialisation based on Epstein (Epstein,
2005: 1) as the increasing importance of financial motives, financial institu-
tions and financial elites in the functioning of the economy. As indicated by this
very broad and general definition, financialisation is a complex process with
many faces. Empirically, these faces most prominently include (a) a reordering
of the productive sector, (b) a restructuring of the financial sector, (c) a modifi-
cation of economic statecraft and (d) the incorporation of private households
into the financial sector. In order to establish whether the European Union has
been able to deliver on the notion of a “Social Europe”, we need to highlight the
breadth of the process, not only focus on a specific realm.
Ad (a): For a couple of decades now, many workers have become familiar
with some aspects of financialisation under catchphrases such as the rise of
“shareholder value” (Höpner, 2003). Attempts by shareholders and manage-
ment to cream off an increasing share of company profits are an important part
of financialisation. Typical instruments include share options, bonus payments,
or share buyback programmes, but also the restructuring of companies driven
by demands from private equity and activist hedge funds, or via hostile takeo-
vers. This “financial market capitalism” (Windolf, 2005) is supported by the ac-
cumulation of capital in investment funds and through information processing
by analysts and rating agencies.
However, the process of financialisation is much broader than implied in
these early discussions on shareholder value and financial market capitalism.

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Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
First, the focus on finance-based profits has become much broader even within
companies of the productive sector. This includes in particular the tenden-
cy to increase profits through financial market activities, e.g. through highly
profitable financial services companies such as Volkswagen Financial Services,
or through financial market speculation, as for example Porsche during the
management of Wiedeking and Härter. In contrast to earlier discussions on
financial market capitalism, where the enforcement of the interest of financial
capital was based on the instrumental power of specific actors such as pen-
sion funds, financialisation implies a much broader and – in spite of the 2008
financial crisis – durable financial rationality (Kädtler, 2014) or capital market
orientation (Faust et al., 2011). These rationalities guide the activity of all parts
of management, for example with regard to the choice of profitable investment
projects or with regard to human resources policies.
Financialisation also includes changes within the financial sector itself (b),
away from the traditional transaction banking towards the increased focus on
investment banking as well as the trading of securities via shadow banks (Kes-
sler and Wilhelm, 2014). These activities become particularly controversial
when related to the financialisation of the environment and natural resources,
for example with regard to speculative trading of food or of agricultural land
(Ouma, 2014).
In the context of the establishment and the crisis of the Eurozone, the influ-
ence of financialization on economic statecraft has become obvious (c). The
Italian state, for example, has developed derivatives-based strategies during
the 1990s, in order to get access to the Economic and Monetary Union (Lagna,
2016).
Finally, financialisation also includes the incorporation of private house-
holds in financial markets (d). In particular, this takes place via the utilisation
of old age insurance and the increasing importance of real estate investments.
(Mertens, Meyer-Eppler, 2014). Whereas most private households tradition-
ally were not exposed to the fluctuations of financial markets, the increasing
importance of mortgages and of their securitization has changed this situation.
All in all, the process of financialisation belongs to the most important
changes in economies, societies and politics during the last decades (Heires
and Nölke, 2014a, 2014b). While complementary to the rise of neoliberalism,
it is analytically distinct if the latter is more narrowly understood as a political
programme for the deregulation of the economy and for the dismantling of the
welfare state (Biebricher, 2012). Given the broad and multi-faceted character
of the financialisation process, it is important to develop some measures for
grasping its variance over time and between countries. Otherwise it risks be-
coming a catch-all phrase for modern economic and political developments,
similar to broader notions of neoliberalism (Christophers, 2015).

32 AndreAs nölke
2. FinancialiSation in europe: itS extent and itS variance
The process of financialisation began in the US but has massively influenced
society, politics and the economies in Europe as well. However, there are obvious
and distinct differences in the degree and pattern of financialisation between the
national economies of the European Union (Lapavitsas and Powell, 2013; Stock-
hammer et al., 2014). Therefore, we should not only refrain from making too general
propositions with regard to the extent of financialization in the member economies
of the European Union, but also need to study the reasons for this variegation.
In order to make somewhat more precise statements about the extent and
variance of financialization, we need a measure for the latter. However, the
measurement of financialisation is rather complex, due to the comprehensive
character of the potentially relevant phenomena and the methodological prob-
lems, for example for covering the contribution of the financial sector to gross
domestic product (Nölke, 2014) and for the availability of empirical data. Cor-
respondingly, we may need to apply different data for the measurement of the
long-term pattern of financialization and for its country-specific variance.
FiGure 1: Financial proFit aS a Share oF total domeStic proFit uS, 1934-2014)
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea.gov), Table 6.16 Corporate Profits by Industry, Profits are
with IVA and CCAdj.
Variables: domestic industries, financial.
The best empirical data on long term developments of financialisation are avail-
able for the US economy, as most discussions of financialization focus on the latter.
Long-term historical data on the US economy demonstrate the shift of profits from
industry and services to finance (figure 1). This data demonstrates that the relatively
high share of profits in the financial sector was considerably reduced during the
Second World War and the immediate post-war period. After a long phase of stag-
nation it started to rise again since the 1980s, with the highest share shortly before
the bursting of the dotcom bubble. The increase of remuneration in the financial
sector – not covered in the figure – continued to rise after 2001, although more
4
The process of financialisation began in the US but has massively influenced society,
politics and the economies in Europe as well. However, there are obvious and distinct
differences in the degree and pattern of financialisation between the national
economies of the European Union (Lapavitsas and Powell, 2013; Stockhammer et al.,
2014). Therefore, we should not only refrain from making too general propositions with
regard to the extent of financialization in the member economies of the European
Union, but also need to study the reasons for this variegation.
In order to make somewhat more precise statements about the extent and variance of
financialization, we need a measure for the latter. However, the measurement of
financialisation is rather complex, due to the comprehensive character of the potentially
relevant phenomena and the methodological problems, for example for covering the
contribution of the financial sector to gross domestic product (Nölke, 2014) and for the
availability of empirical data. Correspondingly, we may need to apply different data for
the measurement of the long-term pattern of financialization and for its country-specific
variance.
The best empirical data on long term developments of financialisation are available for
the US economy, as most discussions of financialization focus on the latter. Long-term
historical data on the US economy demonstrate the shift of profits from industry and
services to finance (figure 1). This data demonstrates that the relatively high share of
profits in the financial sector was considerably reduced during the Second World War
and the immediate post-war period. After a long phase of stagnation it started to rise
again since the 1980s, with the highest share shortly before the bursting of the dotcom
bubble. The increase of remuneration in the financial sector – not covered in the figure
– continued to rise after 2001, although more gradually (Philippon and Resheff, 2012).
Even with the share of financial profits in total profits strongly reduced - particularly
during and after the 2008 financial crisis – from a historical perspective it is obvious
that today’s US economy continues to be characterized by a high degree of
financialisation. Moreover, the relative share of the financial sector in total profits does
not reflect the full extent of financialisation. In addition, we need to cover the movement
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Figure1:FinancialprofitasashareoftotaldomesticprofitUS,1934-2014)
Source:Bureauof EconomicAnal ysis(bea.gov), Table6.16Corporate Profitsby Industry,Profits arewithIVAa ndCCAdj
Variables:domestic industries, financial

33
Revista de economía mundial 46, 2017, 27-48
Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
gradually (Philippon and Resheff, 2012). Even with the share of financial profits in
total profits strongly reduced - particularly during and after the 2008 financial crisis
– from a historical perspective it is obvious that today’s US economy continues to
be characterized by a high degree of financialisation. Moreover, the relative share
of the financial sector in total profits does not reflect the full extent of financialisa-
tion. In addition, we need to cover the movement of profits within the non-financial
sector (particularly within manufacturing) towards income-based financial activity.
If we take these changes into account, the rising importance of financialisation is
even more pronounced than indicated in the intertemporal comparison of figure 1
(Krippner, 2011: 34 ff.; Lin and Tomaskovic-Devey, 2013: 1284ff.).
As regards the variance of financialization patterns in Europe, data availability
is more limited, particularly with regard to long-term data. Still, it becomes obvious
that there is a variegated development of financialization in Europe. For example,
the over-all degree of financialisation is much lower in Germany than in the United
Kingdom, even if patterns may be different in specialized market segments. One
measure of financialization where country-specific data are available, if only until
2008, is the financial sector share of gross operating surplus (figure 2). Whereas the
financial sector in the United Kingdom has a very high share on total gross operat-
ing surplus, the role of the financial sector in Germany is much less pronounced and
only amounted to one quarter of the value of the UK in 2007. Subsequently, the
share of the financial sector within gross operating service even further decreased in
Germany and also had a much lower level than in France and Spain. In contrast to
the United Kingdom, where the City of London has increasingly become prominent
within the national economy, Germany still has a much higher share of manufactur-
ing, particularly with regard to small and medium scale enterprises. Moreover, even
within manufacturing, the financial market rationality has not been implemented as
comprehensively as in the Anglo-American countries (van Treeck et al., 2007; van
Treeck, 2008) or in France (Godechot, 2012; Alvarez, 2015).
FiGure 2: Financial Sector Share oF GroSS operatinG SurpluS in Selected eu economieS
Datenquelle: OECD STAN Database for Structural Analysis (ISIC Rev. 3), GOPS Gross operating
surplus and mixed income.
Variablen: CTOTAL TOTAL, Financial Intermediation.
5
of profits within the non-financial sector (particularly within manufacturing) towards
income-based financial activity. If we take these changes into account, the rising
importance of financialisation is even more pronounced than indicated in the
intertemporal comparison of figure 1 (Krippner, 2011: 34 ff.; Lin and Tomaskovic-
Devey, 2013: 1284ff.).
As regards the variance of financialization patterns in Europe, data availability is more
limited, particularly with regard to long-term data. Still, it becomes obvious that there is
a variegated development of financialization in Europe. For example, the over-all
degree of financialisation is much lower in Germany than in the United Kingdom, even
if patterns may be different in specialized market segments. One measure of
financialization where country-specific data are available, if only until 2008, is the
financial sector share of gross operating surplus (figure 2). Whereas the financial
sector in the United Kingdom has a very high share on total gross operating surplus,
the role of the financial sector in Germany is much less pronounced and only amounted
to one quarter of the value of the UK in 2007. Subsequently, the share of the financial
sector within gross operating service even further decreased in Germany and also had
a much lower level than in France and Spain. In contrast to the United Kingdom, where
the City of London has increasingly become prominent within the national economy,
Germany still has a much higher share of manufacturing, particularly with regard to
small and medium scale enterprises. Moreover, even within manufacturing, the
financial market rationality has not been implemented as comprehensively as in the
Anglo-American countries (van Treeck et al., 2007; van Treeck, 2008) or in France
(Godechot, 2012; Alvarez, 2015).
Another striking feature of financialisation in Europe is the remarkably high degree of
financialisation in Spain, at least before the 2008 financial crisis. Spain, like other
southern European economies, has encountered an increasing degree of de-
industrialisation in the last decade. The introduction of the Euro was followed by the
elimination of risk devaluation and consequently Spain encountered a credit-driven
boom, particularly with increasing expenditures for consumption and real estate. This
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
10%
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Figure2:FinancialsectorshareofgrossoperatingsurplusinselectedEU
economies
Germany Spain France UnitedKingdom

34 AndreAs nölke
Another striking feature of financialisation in Europe is the remarkably high
degree of financialisation in Spain, at least before the 2008 financial crisis.
Spain, like other southern European economies, has encountered an increas-
ing degree of de-industrialisation in the last decade. The introduction of the
Euro was followed by the elimination of risk devaluation and consequently
Spain encountered a credit-driven boom, particularly with increasing expen-
ditures for consumption and real estate. This boom went hand in hand with a
strongly increasing wage level, whereas wage increases in Germany were much
lower (Höpner, 2013: 10). Since an external devaluation of the currency was
no longer possible, this development led to a strong divergence of the develop-
ment of unit labour costs and Spanish industry suffered a considerable loss of
competitiveness. At the same time, the importance of the financial sector has
grown, in particular with regard to real estate. This has led to a re-structuring
of the Spanish economy, similar to the situation in other Southern European
economies (Becker, 2014; Gambarotto and Solari, 2014, Stockhammer et al.,
2014).
This short comparison of four core economies of the Eurozone demon-
strates that we are observing country-specific patterns of financialisation. In
addition, we can also observe specific transnational dependencies with regard
to financialisation in Europe (Nölke, 2016: 153-155). First of all, this relates
to the role of the United Kingdom (more specifically: the City of London) as an
economy that has specialised on the management of financialisation. Moreo-
ver, we need to highlight the symbiosis between countries such as Germany
and Spain (at least before the outset of the Eurozone crisis) where the German
balance of payment surplus inter alia has been invested in countries such as
Spain and helped financing the credit-driven boom in these countries after the
introduction of the Euro. This boom did not only lead to an increased demand
for German products but also to an increasing loss of price competitiveness of
the Spanish economy, and thus further enhanced the disparities of the finan-
cialisation process within the European Union. This development had particu-
larly negative social repercussions in Southern Europe.
3. FinancialiSation and economic inequality
The studies of Thomas Piketty (2014) demonstrate the long-term process
of increasing social and economic inequality in Western industrialised coun-
tries since the 1970s. Two of the features of increased inequality highlighted
by Piketty directly relate to the process of financialisation, namely the diver-
gence of salaries, in particular in favour of managers and large enterprises, and
even more importantly, with regard to financial assets, where he has found a
stronger increase of return on capital if compared with general growth rates
(Piketty, 2014: 43ff.). Similarly, Piketty´s account of economic development –
a high degree of inequality in the 19th and early 20th century, a period of lower
inequality in the “thirty golden years” after the Second World War and another

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Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
period of strongly increasing inequality over the last decades – indicates paral-
lel patterns between the historical development of financialisation (see the low
degree of the latter during the three post war-decades and the increase since
about 1980, as depicted in figure 1) and social inequality.
The strength of Piketty's analysis lies in its extremely impressive documen-
tation of long-term empirical developments with regard to central aspects of
social inequality. Less pronounced, however, is his analysis with regard to the
determinants of the latter. Although there are many more determinants for ine-
quality, important causal relationships between increasing financialisation and
increasing inequality have been identified by studies in economic history, mac-
roeconomics and economic sociology (Dünhaupt, 2014; Gordon 2014; Hein,
2015; Hein and Detzer, 2014; Kus, 2012; Lavoie and Stockhammer, 2014; Lin
and Tomaskovic-Devey, 2013; Turbeville, 2015).
A first causal relationship between the increasing role of the financial sec-
tor and social inequality relates to income inequality. We have already docu-
mented the strong increase of profits in the financial sector, in particular in
the US and the United Kingdom (figures 1 and 2). The average salaries in the
US financial sector have strongly increased during the process of financialisa-
tion, and in 2014 have reached nearly five times the level of 1980 in nominal
terms (Gordon, 2014). Hedge funds in particular have become a synonym for
inequality (Fichtner, 2013). Anecdotally, the remuneration of hedge fund man-
agers such as David Tepper (Appaloosa Management) with nearly 10 Million
US dollars per day in 2014 has even been called into question in circles that
usually are in favour of neo-liberal economic policies (FAZ, 6 May, 2014). Even
in France, a country with moderately increasing financialisation (figure 2), with
only 3 percent of employment in the private economy the financial sector is
responsible for more than 50 percent of the strongly increased inequality be-
tween higher incomes (Godechot, 2012).
A second causal pattern relates to the non-financial sector of the economy
(Dünhaupt, 2014: 11-14). Here, the increased importance of financial market
rationalities as well as specific instruments such as share options, bonus pay-
ments and share buy-back-programmes have led to a strong increase of both
return on capital and remuneration of higher management. At the same time,
financial market rationality also operates against workers’ incomes as the fo-
cus on the development of share prices exercises downward pressure on wag-
es. Moreover, companies forego investments in production because financial
investments appear to be more profitable with negative repercussions on eco-
nomic growth and employment (Stockhammer, 2007). Moreover, increasing
financialisation also erodes worker-friendly labour market institutions such as
the protection against dismissal and comprehensive coverage by wage agree-
ments (Darcillon, 2015). These effects are not only valid for exchange-listed
companies. Since increasing shares of value chains are being relocated towards
the supply industry, downward pressure on employment conditions and wage
structures also affects those companies that themselves are not focused on the

36 AndreAs nölke
maximization of shareholder value. Correspondingly, even these companies
are affected by the erosion of established industrial relation systems (Haipeter,
2009: 58). According to quantitative studies, since 1970 financialisation has
been responsible for about 50 percent of the decreasing share of labour in
national income, substantially more than globalisation, technological change
and institutional factors combined (Lavoie and Stockhammer, 2014; Lin and
Tomaskovic-Devey, 2013).
A third and less documented causal path between financialisation and so-
cial inequality departs from private households. First of all, financialisation al-
lows wealthy/well-off and well-informed households to gain a disproportional
increase in income via capital investments. Second, financialisation allows low-
income households much easier access to credit. These households appreciate
this development because it temporarily allows them to maintain and finance
their lifestyle in spite of decreasing real wages. However, in a situation of crisis
this can lead to complete economic ruin as has become obvious during the
sub-prime crisis in the US (Mertens and Meyer-Eppler, 2014). These processes
do not remain limited to the US and the UK, but are increasingly at work in
Germany (Mertens, 2015) and in Eastern and Southern Europe.
4. FinancialiSation and Financial criSiS
Whereas the mechanisms described above highlight negative social reper-
cussions of financialisation in “normal times”, financialisation has also proven to
be a catalyst of major economic crises, with further negative social consequenc-
es. Again, we can highlight a number of causal mechanisms leading from a high
degree of financialisation to the likeliness of a major financial crisis (Heires and
Nölke, 2011), although both a high degree of financialization and the subsequent
economic crisis may also be understood – in a more long-term structural per-
spective – as outcomes of contradictions of advanced capitalism (Foster, 2008).
First, financialisation replaces rising wages as demand basis for continu-
ous growth by credit-based growth. Whereas private households previously
were able to maintain their level of consumption based on rising wages, in
financialised economies the stagnation of wages is compensated by increas-
ing wealth based on financial investment. Households increasingly invest into
shares or investment funds, or the acquisition of credit-based real estate. This
mechanism goes hand in hand with the increasing indebtedness of private
households which does not pose a problem as long as shares or housing prices
continue to rise. Increasing investment in financial markets thus proves to be
a replacement of previous wage rises as driver for economic growth (Stock-
hammer, 2007). This process can continue for many years as the long boom
periods in highly financialised economics such as the US and the UK have
demonstrated. However, in the long run, the increasing indebtedness of private
households proves to be a problem, given the fact that this process cannot
continue forever.

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Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
Second, and relatedly, financialised economies are characterized by re-
peated boom and bust cycles, since the speculative increase of asset values
is core to accumulation based on financialisation. In order to create growth in
financialised economies, investors continuously need new investment oppor-
tunities. The focus of those investments can range from shares in technology
companies to real estate or agricultural products. Whereas the increased valu-
ation of the assets that are core to these processes of financialisation may be
realistic or even productive in early stages of a boom cycle, this direct linkage
is becoming more and more tenuous (Aalbers, 2008: 149). Increasing doubts
about an adequate valuation finally leads to a bust of this cycle. Financialised
economies thus can witness cycles of high growth rates and increasing asset
valuation, but repeatedly end in crises where most of these asset values will
be destroyed. Whereas boom and bust cycles based on speculation have been
an established fact of economic development over the centuries, the severity
of these cycles is becoming much more pronounced, given the distinct growth
of financial markets under financialisation. This has become abundantly clear
during the 2008 economic crisis when a limited phenomenon on US real estate
markets led to a massive financial crisis.
The linkage between financialisation and financial crisis is also supported
by a number of institutional mechanisms. The shift of accounting standards
from historic-cost to fair-value or mark-to-market accounting may serve as an
illustration for one of these institutional mechanisms (Nölke and Perry, 2008).
This mechanism does not only lead to a strong increase of the value of financial
assets during a boom phase but also contributes to the severity of the bust
phase. The assessment of financial assets according to market prices during
the boom phase - in comparison to an assessment according to historical costs
– leads to a much higher valuation and therefore contributes to the strong
increase of financial sector profits during the boom phase. The same mecha-
nism leads to a massive discount on the value of financial assets during a bust
phase. Mark-to-market accounting standards thus have a pro-cyclical effect
during financial crises. This mechanism becomes even more severe given the
fact that banks and other financial investors have to sell financial assets in
order to compensate for strongly decreasing asset values, and thus aggravate
downturn prices for these assets. Correspondingly, mark-to-market accounting
standards have been one of the institutional mechanisms that have paved the
way towards an expansion of financialization, but also have aggravated the se-
verity of the recent global economic crisis, with massive social consequences.
5. the political pathway towardS FinancialiSation
The process of financialisation has considerable percussions with regard to
the idea of a more equal and just “Social Europe”. The negative re-distributive
effects of increasing financialisation – including the disastrous consequences
of financial crises – are difficult to reconcile with the notion of a robust pro-

38 AndreAs nölke
tection against the unwelcome effects of globalisation. Correspondingly, there
are good reasons for considering a reversal of the financialisation process, to
prevent these negative social consequences in the future. In order to do so, we
first need to clarify where financialisation comes from.
The focus here is not on the long-term structural tendencies of capitalism,
but on the proximate causes of financialization. Even if technical developments
in the field of information technology and academic developments in financial
mathematics have supported the deepening of financialisation, the latter pro-
cess in this perspective can mainly be explained by political decisions. These
decisions have been taken at the national, European and global level since the
late 1960s. They relate first to the liberalization of cross-border capital flows,
second to the liberalization of capital markets at the national level, and third,
to the integration of additional societal and economic realms into the accumu-
lation logic of the financial sector.
The degree of liberalisation of cross-border financial flows becomes obvi-
ous if we compare the nearly completely closed national capital markets of the
Bretton Woods system during the 1950s and early 1960s with the contem-
porary situation. Today, the foreign exchange market has become the largest
market globally. For example, in April 2013 the daily global turnover in foreign
exchange markets amounted to an average of 5.3 trillion US dollars (Deutsche
Bundesbank, 2013). After the creeping erosion caused by the evolution of the
Eurodollar markets, the Bretton Woods system, which had strongly contrib-
uted to controlling trans-border flows, was abolished in 1973. Subsequently,
the industrialised countries completely stopped capital controls.
In the period after the Second World War capital markets at the national level
were strictly regulated, similar to cross-border financial flows. Both interest rates
as well as types of credits and debtors were mandated by law. Banks had very lim-
ited leeway in making their decisions, banking was “boring”. In many countries dif-
ferent forms of banking activity were strictly separated, in particular retail banking
and investment banking. Similar to the limitations on cross-border financial flows,
these limitations increasingly have been abolished since the 1970s.
Since the 1980s, additional economic and societal realms have been inte-
grated into the logic of financial markets. Political decisions that have support-
ed this process inter alia include the creation of a market for corporate control
(in Germany for example the dissolution of the Deutschland AG by changes in
tax laws), stock exchange listings of formerly public enterprises (for example
the postal service in Germany) and tax support for capital market-based pen-
sions (in Germany for example the so called “Riester-Rente”).
The European Union has played an important role with regard to all three
dimensions of the deepening of financialisation, even if the original decisions
had been taken at the global level (the end of the Bretton-Woods system), and
at the national level (financial market liberalisation, extension of the financial
sector). Whereas the European Union played a negligible role compared to the
national level until the 1980s, it has become the main driving force facilitating
financialisation in Europe since the 1990s. More specifically, “the European

39
Revista de economía mundial 46, 2017, 27-48
Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
Union” usually refers to the European Commission and the representatives of
the executives of the EU member states (e.g. ministries of finance), with a very
strong input by financial sector lobbying that is more powerful at the EU level
than at the national level of most member states (Young 2014). As highlighted
above (section 2), this process has not led to a uniform pattern of financializa-
tion across Europe, but has led to variegated outcomes, depending on the in-
teractions with the diverse types of capitalism within the Union (Stockhammer
et al., 2014; Nölke, 2016).
Although free movement of capital had already been incorporated in
the Treaties of Rome, it was strongly limited in most member states until the
1990s, based on national protection clauses. However, the coming into force
of the treaty of Maastricht in 1994 interdicted these limitations. Correspond-
ingly, the legal foundations of the Union are tilted in favour of the liberalisation
of cross-border financial flows. In addition, the introduction of the Euro during
the first decade of the new millennium has led to a process where savings by
rich households as well as companies in Germany were increasingly invested in
other European countries like Spain, thus enhancing the increasing financiali-
sation process in these countries (Grüning et al., 2015: 4).
The European Union was also definitely one of the most determined driving
forces with regard to further liberalisation of the financial markets in Europe,
thereby explicitly focusing on the US model (Posner and Véron, 2010). Even
after the 2008 financial crisis it did not enforce fundamental changes in the
liberal regulation of financial markets at the global level, but rather focused on
measures for the stabilisation of existing liberal rules (Bieling, 2014; Mügge,
2014). Moreover, the European Union contributed towards deepening finan-
cialisation not only through financial market regulation in the narrow sense but
also through the utilisation of competition law, for example with regard to the
liberalisation of public banking in Germany (Seikel, 2013).
The European Union also actively pursued the implementation of the logic
of financial markets in additional economic and social sectors, as far as its legal
competences allowed it. Particularly important was the deepening of market
for corporate control, in particular via the harmonisation of company law and
the takeover directive (Horn, 2012), the dissolution of golden shares (Werner,
2013) and the capital market-based accounting standards discussed above. In
particular in Southern Europe, the European Union also has deepened finan-
cialisation by its focus on large scale privatisation measures of social infrastruc-
tures, given that these privatisations usually were followed by listings on stock
exchanges (Deckwirth, 2008).
6. political optionS For de-FinancialiSation in europe
In spite of the notion of a “Social Europe”, the European Union has mas-
sively contributed to a deepening of the process of financialization, with all
of its negative social consequences. If we want to reduce financialisation, we

40 AndreAs nölke
need to focus on the decisions that have increased financialisation during the
last decades (see section 5 above). De-financialisation thus should focus on the
management of cross-border capital flows, the systematic control of financial
markets and on the imposition of limits on the reach of financial markets. Sub-
sequently, we will discuss the most important political options and compare
these options with the current activities of the European Union, i.e. its legis-
lative process, as managed by Commission, Council and Parliament. We will
demonstrate that the European Union is currently striving for a deepening of
financialisation rather than decreasing the financialisation process.
A first measure of de-financialisation would be the management of cross-
border financial flows in order to decrease the volatility of the latter, to limit
the structural influence of financial markets on economies, societies and poli-
tics and to make sure that financial market investments are being taxed prop-
erly. Traditionally, capital controls are the most widely used measure for these
purposes. Large emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India use these
controls in order to limit their exposure towards speculative financial flows (Di-
erckx, 2014). Within the European Union, however, capital controls are inter-
dicted since they limit the freedom of capital. Only in a situation of emergency,
the European law allows for capital controls, as it has been the case in Cyprus
and Greece recently. Alternatively, a financial transaction tax would be suitable
in order to measure and regulate capital flows. Indeed, after the 2008 financial
crisis a couple of European Union members have started an initiative for the
introduction of a financial transaction tax at the European level. However, the
deliberations within this initiative only include 11 countries, they are slow and
only cover a selective amount of financial flows, certainly not a comprehensive
Europe-wide management of these transactions (Wahl, 2014).
A second suitable focus of de-financialisation would be a systematic control
of financial markets. An efficient control of financial markets is indispensable
in order to reduce the likelihood of bank bailouts and prevent financial ac-
tors from implementing their ideas of high returns and executive remuneration
in the real economy and society. A strict regulation of financial markets thus
could provide a double dividend. On the one hand, it could lead to financial
stability, on the other hand it could reduce inequality, as demonstrated with
the historical example of the US (Moss, 2010). Since the 2008 financial crisis
the European Union has started a series of more than 40 initiatives to stabilise
financial markets (European Commission, 2014). Apart from the fact that the
focus of these initiatives is the avoidance of additional financial crises and the
strengthening of the efficiency of financial markets, and not the decrease of
social inequality and instability caused by financialisation, these measures are
far from sufficient with regard to steps that would be necessary for fundamen-
tal de-financialisation. Some of these steps, such as the creation of a Capital
Market Union, even enhance financialisation.
European Union measures include first and foremost the creation of a
European system for financial supervision, including European agencies with
autonomous powers. A second core element is the creation of a European

41
Revista de economía mundial 46, 2017, 27-48
Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
Banking Union (EBU), a Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for banks and
a Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for banks that have to be restructured.
In addition, there are plans for the creation of a common deposit protection.
However, no comprehensive solution for this issue has been presented yet.
In addition, the European Union has implemented the Basel III standards for
banking regulation in the form of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR)
and Capital Requirement Directive IV (CRD IV), as well as the Solvency-II regu-
lation for risk stabilization of insurances. Measures aiming at a reduction of
extreme volatility in financial markets include activities for the regulation of
hedge funds and private equity (Alternative Investment Fund Manager Direc-
tive), rating agencies, short selling as well as markets for financial instruments
(European Market Infrastructure Regulation, two Markets in Financial Instru-
ments Directives, Central Securities Depositories Regulation). Ongoing meas-
ures include the regulation of shadow banks, including money market funds,
the restructuring of banks (with the possibility of separating commercial and
investment banking) and measures with regard to benchmarks for the avoid-
ance of market manipulations, for example with regard to the LIBOR.
Whether these measures will be sufficient for avoiding future financial crises
remains to be seen. It is also beyond the scope of this contribution to discuss
in detailed ways the contributions and shortcomings of these initiatives. So far,
long-standing observers of financial markets are highly sceptical of the effec-
tiveness of current regulatory measures with regard to future financial stabil-
ity (Admati and Hellwig, 2013; Haldane, 2013; Helleiner, 2014; Moschella and
Tsingou, 2013). From the perspective of de-financialisation as developed in this
contribution, however, they are clearly inefficient. De-financialisation would im-
ply re-focusing the financial sector on the highly stable provision of traditional
banking services. This would include the interdiction (not only the registration) of
hedge funds and shadow banks as well as a ban on a large number of financial
instruments and proprietary trading activities of banks. Similarly, the measures
are probably not sufficient for the stabilization of banks, neither with regard to
capital requirements, nor with regard to the financing of funds for the restructur-
ing of banks. Even if European decision-making on structural reforms of banks
has not been concluded yet, it clearly will not include sufficient regulation for the
de-concentration of very large banks (too big to fail) and limiting their interac-
tions (too interconnected to fail). However, these measures would be important
for a reduction of financialisation, also with regard to the strong political power
of the financial sector (Gilens, 2014). In contrast, current plans of the European
Union for the promotion of securitization and for improving the ability of small
scale enterprises to access financial markets in the context of the creation of a
Capital Market Union (European Commission, 2015) rather focus on deepening
financialisation. Even many banks (e.g. in Germany savings and loan banks, and
cooperative banks) as well as small and medium scale enterprises are highly
sceptical with regard to these measures (FAZ, 3 March 2015).
Also with regard to limiting the extension of the financial sector in other
sectors of the economy and society - the third focus of de-financialisation - we

42 AndreAs nölke
cannot identify any turning away from financialisation at the European level,
for instance when it comes to limiting share options for managers or restrict-
ing share buyback programmes. In contrast, recent measures by the European
Union rather support further financialisation of those countries that are be-
ing hit strongly in the Eurozone crisis by prescribing comprehensive privatisa-
tion and the reduction of public expenditures, for example for pension finance
(Bieling, 2013; Ebner, 2014). Correspondingly, the process of forcing private
households to invest in financial markets in order to safeguard their standard
of living after retirement will rather be deepened. Similarly, current proposals
for establishing a Capital Market Union will rather deepen the process of finan-
cialization through the securitization of private household debt and mortgages.
7. Financialization and the potential oF a “Social europe”
Departing from the notion of a “Social Europe”, as a protection against the
harsh winds of globalization, we first have given an overview on the various facets
of financialisation, before highlighting its variance in different European econo-
mies. Based on this grasp on the financialisation process, we have subsequently
studied its social consequences, both in “normal” times and during financial crises.
This assessment has led to the conclusion that we have to reverse the process of
financialisation, if we want to create more equal and just societies in Europe.
In order to identify options for de-financialisation, we have highlighted the
political decisions that have led to financialisation in the first place. The Euro-
pean Union has been identified as a prime driver for the deepening of finan-
cialization. Moreover, a comparison of the most important options to reverse
the financialization process with recent EU decision-making has demonstrated
that the Union rather intends to deepen financialization than to reverse it, e.g.,
by creating a Capital Markets Union. Thus, the notion of a “Social Europe” is
not justified, at least with regard to financialization.
This is an unwelcome finding. An important pre-condition for creating a
more equal society in Europe is de-financialisation. The European Union, in
principle, would be the best-suited institution for guiding initiatives in this di-
rection. A unified regulation of financial flows and financial markets at the
European level would minimize regulatory arbitrage, one of the main problems
of an effective regulation of financial markets (Thiemann, 2014). Moreover, the
European level holds the legal competence for many economic policy meas-
ures that are relevant for a decrease of financialisation. However, in practice,
this perspective is unrealistic, legally, institutionally and politically.
With regard to the legal aspects, the basic norm of freedom of capital, as
already contained in the Treaties of Rome, sets the focus of the European Un-
ion on deepening financialisation. Restrictions on trans-border capital mobility,
for example, are not permitted anymore, except for extreme emergencies (as
in case of the Greek crisis).

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Financialisation as the coRe PRoblem FoR a “social euRoPe”
In institutional terms, in particular the European Commission and the Euro-
pean Court of Justice have been the main drivers of liberalisation policies in the
past. Very often, liberalization initiatives stumbled in the Council and or Parlia-
ment, but still have been pursued based on complaints by the Commission and
judgements of the Court (Höpner and Schäfer, 2008). Given this institutional
baggage, it is highly unlikely that these institutions would now become prime
forces for limiting or even reversing the liberalization of financial markets.
Politically, power relations at the European level, particularly during the
implementation phase of legal norms (Young 2014), are strongly dominated
by the lobbying power of financial market actors, clearly more strongly than
on the national level, even if on the latter mobilisation against financialisation
is remarkably limited (Callaghan, 2014). Moreover, the heterogeneity of the
member states with regard to their degree and pattern of financialisation, as
documented in section 2 above, poses strong political limits towards funda-
mental de-financialisation. Even after Brexit, countries with a major financial
sector, such as Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, will seek to prevent
any EU decision to drastically reduce the role of finance.
In the foreseeable future, given these findings, only the national level in se-
lected member states may potentially provide a realistic point of departure for
de-financialisation initiatives, mirroring the situation for other progressive eco-
nomic policies (Höpner, 2012; Nölke, 2013; Streeck, 2014). At the EU level, a
number of obstacles will prevent any meaningful step towards reigning in the
financial sector. Here, financialisation takes precedence over social protection.
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