The Power of Money – The Money of Power

Abstract

We live in a US-dominated phase of financial expansion, in which „an expanded mass of money capital sets itself free from the commodity form, and accumulation proceeds through financial deals.“ (Giovanni Arrighi). The money elite within the present cycle of financial expansion embodies the liberation of huge amounts of money and their transformation into forms of pure power. Once money has been set free from the commodity form, financial deals are just the first step on the road towards detaching money from the economic process altogether. Money will be turned directly into social, cultural, political, and military power – and, just as important, vice versa.