Speculation prices assets by imagined future appeal to others, not actual value.

Evidence

Marx writes of the mysterious commodity qualities that “are at the same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses” (1887, 1:48)—properties that are therefore at once imagined and real. Finance is a key conduit for traversing between the worlds of imagination and reality, of material and fictitious values. And speculation is paradigmatic of this oneiric function of finance: an imaginary act, entirely detached from the value of the assets it refers to (or the value it could yield), relying instead on how speculators imagine it might appeal, in the future, to others like themselves (Haiven 2011). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 138

Categorization

• XREF: Direct mechanism for how speculation keys on others’ imagined future desires—the same self-referential logic the reader wants to trace into dating and politics. — connects to: Life sciences firms may never produce products, so valuation is prospective rather than embodied — Kean Birch, Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy:…, 38; Art valuation now treats artworks as portfolio assets with uncorrelated returns — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 81; Market highs arise from millions’ indifferent thinking, not expert consensus — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 99 (+4 more)