Finance has always generated fictitious capital that exceeds actual value

Evidence

At no moment has capitalism been free from the influence of finance, and at no moment has finance failed to produce fictitious capital – that is, freely circulating claims to future surplus value that act as money and so distort the ideal capitalist economy. The result is that, for this and other reasons, there is always more capital than value to which it has a claim, and this excess fictitious capital, while to a certain extent necessary to overcome certain crises in capitalist economics, fundamentally and essentially skews capital’s reckoning of value. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 104

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines fictitious capital as freely circulating claims to future surplus value that act as money and skew capitalist accounting.
• XREF: The claim that price is an inherently flawed measure of underlying value connects to Haiven’s broader project on finance colonizing everyday life. — connects to: Fictitious capital promises security and fulfillment it structurally cannot deliver — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 582; Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29; Financial wealth is fictitious yet real because shared fictions govern social reproduction — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 42

Broader Connections

• Fictitious capital promises security and fulfillment it structurally cannot deliver #expands (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 582
• Financial wealth is fictitious yet real because shared fictions govern social reproduction #expands (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 42
• Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal #expands (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29