Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2018

Financing the Apocalypse

Drivers for Economic and Political Instability

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Expands on the established work of economic historians and integrates these new developments into a holistic, institutional framework
  • Argues that contemporary neoliberalism in the USA from the Greenspan Era to the present has shaped our institutions and ideologies in ways that have had a profound and deleterious effect
  • Raises the concern that these institutional and ideological developments are deepening the crisis conditions of our financial system

Part of the book series: Palgrave Insights into Apocalypse Economics (PIAE)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
  2. Introduction

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 1-15
  3. Taking the Long View

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 17-41
  4. Fortune 500 and Wall Street Leviathans

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 43-73
  5. Contemporary Neoliberalism

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 113-143
  6. Everyday Neoliberalism

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 145-164
  7. The Epic Crises of the Nineties

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 193-215
  8. The 2008 Meltdown

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 217-241
  9. Microfinance and Loan Sharking

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 243-264
  10. The Neoliberal Oxymoron of Green Capitalism

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 283-305
  11. Conclusion

    • Joel Magnuson
    Pages 307-315
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 317-328

About this book

As we tour the 400 year history of capitalism through its various phases of development, financial system instability is always there lurking in the shadows. The historical record attests that the processes of aggregating capital for real investment are inescapably vulnerable to risk, manic speculation, unserviceable debt, and crises; and with each episode of instability, a trail of devastation follows. Economic historians such as Hyman Minsky, Charles Kindleberger and others have studied this history and have exposed certain boom-bust patterns that have a way of stubbornly repeating themselves.

This book posits that the large-scale financial crises that the world has experienced over the last 30 years are more or less the latest segments in this narrative, but with some distinct characteristics. In the period spanning the stock market crash of 1987 to the banking crisis of 2008 and its aftermath – the Greenspan Era – there were key institutional and ideological developments rooted in contemporary neoliberalism that have reshaped the historic rise-and-fall patterns to become more severe and widespread. In this important volume, Magnuson suggests the next episode will be a massive financial cyclone that will send us all tumbling toward a perilous future.



Reviews

“Magnuson has long been the proverbial canary in the coal mine urging us to wake up to the various pathologies of a greed-based, corporate-controlled, and growth-addicted modern economy. What he calls, tongue-in-cheek, Financing the Apocalypse, exposes the system’s institutional and ideological drivers. The many flavors of life, and, quite possibly, our planetary future, vanishing behind the stench of greed. A must-read for anyone who cares about human and ecological wellbeing.” (Dirk Philipsen, Associate Research Professor of Economic History, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University)

 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Independent Researcher, Tualatin, USA

    Joel Magnuson

About the author

Joel Magnuson is an independent economist based in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of many books, as well as numerous articles in journals and anthologies in the United States, Europe, and Japan. His research interests include mindful economics and institutional reform.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access