Crisis and Fictitious Capital

Abstract

This text analyzes the relationship between crises and the dominance of interest-bearing capital, with particular emphasis on fictitious capital, which forms a striking feature of contemporary capitalist economies. It discusses how capitalist crises are commonly viewed and how we should understand them, on several dimensions of reality, based on a comprehensive reading of Marx. We follow with a reflection on the nature and characteristics of interest-bearing capital and on fictitious capital and fictitious profit, given that the high activity of this last form of capital is a hallmark of current capitalism and is itself the maximum expression of the fetishism engendered by it. We conclude that what is understood as a crisis by people in general is, in fact, a source of enormous enrichment for the owners of fictitious capital.

Citation

Marques, R.M. and Nakatani, P. (2023), "Crisis and Fictitious Capital", Herrera, R. (Ed.) Value, Money, Profit, and Capital Today (Research in Political Economy, Vol. 39), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0161-723020230000039013