The Specter of Capital

This can(’t) be an asset class: The world of money management, “society”, and the contested morality of farmland investments

“…This definition is useful, because it allows us to differentiate an asset from a commodity: What is being traded in so-called financial markets are propertied claims on future income (Knorr-Cetina, 2012), not objects produced during the labor process. In other words, “the elementary units of this economy consist not of exchange relations but in liability structures” (Vogl, 2015: 117). 5 Thus, assetization as the process of turning something into a source of future income should not be equated with other popular political economy terms such as commodification or marketization.…”

“…Broadly anchored in a moral economy take on the economy, convention theorists have argued that all economies, even the most disembedded (Polanyi, 2001[1944], destructive, and profit-seeking ones, are moral economies (Sayer, 2015; Stark, 2009):all economic institutions are founded on norms defining rights and responsibilities that have legitimations (whether reasonable or unreasonable), require some moral behaviour of actors, and generate effects that have ethical implications. (Sayer, 2007: 4)A conventionalist take on modern finance starts with the premise that activities of financial economization, including assetization, “are interlinked and tied to an uncertain future and its yield risks” (Vogl, 2015: 117). Under conditions of uncertainty, it is only through “a shared way of interpreting future economic developments” (Orléan, 2012: 325), as well as shared practices of (e)valuation (Orléan, 2012: 336) that financial players can coordinate their actions and bestow them with broader legitimacy.…”

“…It reimagines financial actors as moral agents and wealth creators rewarded for the time waited before their money is returned with interest (Sayer, 2007). As Vogl (2015: 80) succinctly puts it, “like no other social invention before it, the intricate network of innovative financial products is said to ensure the realization of ‘distributive justice’ across all life situations” (see also Ortiz, 2014). More recently, in an attempt at moral rejuvenation, new forms of social, responsible or impact investment have emerged seem to alter the moral fabric of the world of money management (see section “Responses from industry players”), but do not fundamentally break with the expansionist logic of capitalist accumulation (Kish and Fairbairn, 2018; Langley, 2018).…”

Hayek’s vicarious secularization of providential theology

“… 100. Viner (1972: 82), Hill (2001: 14–15), Harrison (2011), and Vogl (2015: 25). For an opposing view, see Viner (1927), Alvey (2004), and Laval (2007: 213–227). …”

“… 39. Vogl (2015: 22–23). Hayek (2013: 26) notes how primitive mental habits of anthropomorphism confuse all non-intentional orders with divine intervention.…”