Comments on Michael Hudson: Making Capitalism Great Again? A Critique of the "Rentier Takeover" Thesis. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mason, J. W.
• Is Part Of: Review of radical political economics. Volume 53:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 574
• Page End: 578
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: financialization -- circuit of capital -- corporate governance -- rentiers; Economics -- Periodicals; United States -- Economic policy -- Periodicals; United States -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1177/04866134211028915
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0486-6134

Abstract

Michael Hudson argues that a new form of financial capitalism has displaced the industrial capitalism of Marx's day. Unlike earlier capitalists, whose pursuit of lower costs led to improvements in the organization of production, the typical wealth owner today is a passive rentier who, like a feudal landlord, merely claims the surplus from existing production processes. Some form of this vision of financialization is widely held, but, I argue, misleading. It exaggerates the differences between historical and present-day capitalism, and misses the ways in which "finance" and "industry" form complementary parts of a single process. JEL classification: B51, E44, N20