Post-2008 volatility revived speculation that postwar devolatilization had suppressed

Evidence

Speculation has been integral to the history of finance capitalism, yet its impact has not been determined by economic developments alone. A confluence of societal and political factors has produced the highs and lows of the speculative imagination. If the postwar years anointed a devolatilized economy that seemed to suppress speculative impulses, the recent fallout from the 2008 crisis heralded a new period of intense volatility, with staggering levels of uncertainty—and new speculative summits. … Our routine experiences of the world increasingly unfold through complex technologies, whose inner workings are impenetrable. Data’s promise of more or better knowledge remains elusive. Our growing dependence on complex machines and opaque algorithms doesn’t make the world more legible or its impending crises more predictable—our ways of seeing are shifting, yet darkness doesn’t seem to go away. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 167

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s work on pre-state trade institutions and Shapiro’s on trust — the historical shift between devolatilized and volatile regimes parallels institutional trust regimes.