The anthropologist Paul Jorion has kindly published some remarks inspired by the reading of his blog. Having newly published a French translation of Max Weber’s Die Börse (The Stock Exchange), I tried to express some thoughts that I believe this book encompasses on market morals and speculation.
The entire article can be read here.
Tags : max weber, morals, paul jorion, speculation
By the way that translation was an excellent idea : it shows how finance can drive politics. Weber seems to be obsessed by the link between financial efficiency and economic power. Germany could not afford the lack of a stock exchange which is the actual discourse of « financiarization ».
Well, thank you! As a matter of fact, I guess Germany had little time to check whether the lack of a stock exchange was really a hinderance in economic matters. WW1 would not give them time enough to verify that. However I have read in some places that the 1896 Law on the Stock Exchange played a great part in shaping the financial system in modern Germany, in particular in what concerns the interlacing of banks and big companies in that country. I would be interested if you had more informations on the subject.
I don’t understand your statement about the actual discours of « financiarization ». Could you please be a little more explicit?
It is used by post-keynesian economics who show that we are living in a finance led capitalist system.
In this approach you can consider that financial economics is the key to success i.e. growth, and it is linked with a discourse on the benefits of credit borrowing, the need to reward risk by large paychecks for managers (or they will make other people rich somewhere else)…
What stikes me the most in Weber’s book is that he really wants to explain how the stock exchange works although it seems impossible to imagine what it can become with practice.