THE PROCESS OF FINANCIALIZATION IN CAPITALISM: A THEORETICAL, HISTORICAL, AND EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

During neoliberalism, recurrent financial crises have been triggered, usually interpreted as a product of financialization. This article argues that financialization is a manifestation of the internal contradictions of capitalism and the transformations of the international monetary system. This paper argues that insufficient profitability in the productive sphere drives capital toward forms of valorization based on credit, debt, and speculation, creating fictitious capital disconnected from real assets. At the historical level, it examines the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, the consolidation of the dollar as the global currency, and financial liberalization, processes that consolidated a global financialized regime. At the empirical level, it is demonstrated that, under neoliberalism, financialization has given centrality to fictitious capital, reinforced dependence on speculative mechanisms, and deepened the financial subordination inherent in peripheral economies. It is concluded that financialization does not eliminate or contain crises, but rather amplifies and diversifies them, constituting a characteristic of contemporary capitalism.