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This paper analyses the recent changes in financial practices and relations in emerging capitalis t economies (ECEs) using the example of Brazil. It argues that in ECEs these financ ia l transformations, akin to the financialisation phenomena observed in Core Capitalist Economies (CCEs), are fundamentally shaped by their subordinated integration into a financialised and structured world economy. To analyse this subordinated financialisation the paper draws on the framework of international currency hierarchies. It shows by means of two specific processes how the existence of a hierarchic international monetary system has changed the financial behaviour of domestic economic agents and with it the structure of the financial system. The first process highlights the phenomenon of reserve accumulation and the changing behaviour of domestic banks. The second points to ECEs' sustained external vulnerability and its impact on the operations of Brazilian non-financial corporations. The paper also shows that not only were these financ ia l transformation shaped by ECEs' subordinated financial integration, but it was these financialisation tendencies themselves which contributed to cementing existing hierarchies and further deepened existing asymmetries between ECEs and CCEs.

This contribution discusses the international aspect of financialization in developing and emerging economies (DEEs). It argues that international financialization is more than just an increase in cross‐border capital flows but entails distinct qualitative changes in the way economic agents are integrated into international financial markets. Moreover, in line with the emerging literature on subordinated financialization, the article shows how these changes have been shaped by, and have themselves exacerbated, the subordinated position of DEEs in the international economic and financial system and hence have contributed to uneven international development. Based on an empirical discussion of recent changes in DEEs’ international financial integration, the article concludes with some concrete policy proposals on how to confront these international aspects of financialization.

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In the explosion of literature on financialization, there is a much smaller but growing interest in what the phenomenon means for emerging capitalist economies (ECEs). We hold that for agents located in ECEs, the encounter with financialization is from a subordinate position: first, in relation to global production, ECE firms occupy subordinate locations in global production networks, providing cheap labor and raw, or at best, intermediate inputs; Second, in relation to global finance, ECEs are structurally subordinated to ACEs, that is, both trade and the most liquid capital markets are denominated in the currency of ACEs. Subordination in production means firms based in ECEs are able to capture less of the value created than firms higher in the hierarchy and must pay more to hedge macroeconomic risk. In circulation, strategies may emerge in ACEs wherein increased household indebtedness and/or asset market inflation maintain aggregate demand. In finance, ECEs' subordinate position in relation to money and capital markets means that capital inflows are predominantly short-term, seeking financial yields rather than assuming productive risk. The results are continued volatility, external vulnerability and subordination to the currencies of the ACEs, which themselves serve to further deepen domestic financialization. We conclude that, while by no means pre-destined, financialization as experienced in ECEs may serve to further cement their subordinate position in the global structure.

Despite sound macroeconomic fundamentals, the Brazilian currency, the real, experienced one of the world's largest exchange rate depreciations during the recent international financial crisis. This depreciation resulted from Brazil's rising 'international financialization', i.e. the increased participation of foreign investors in short-term domestic Brazilian assets. One important manifestation of this process, in particular, was the increased internationalization of the Brazilian real, which has become one of the most widely traded emerging-market currencies. However, the rising influence of international investors on Brazil's domestic currency weakened its exchange rate management during the international financial crisis as rapid international portfolio adjustment led to the real's sharp depreciation. Such exchange rate volatility has important implications for macroeconomic policy, especially exchange rate management, since, in the presence of increased international financialization, the standard prudent macroeconomic management that has been advocated by mainstream economics will prove inadequate -and might even undermine efforts -to maintain financial stability.

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