The unity of capital financialization and self-reproduction: Marxian assumptions and modern elements

Abstract

This study analyzes the unity observed between the process of expanded self-reproduction of capital and the modern phenomenon of financialization. The first part of the article presents Marx’s foundations of the labor theory of value, as discussed in the three Volumes of Das Kapital. In this theory, Marx identified the process of capital valorization in its simple forms, the cycles of capitalist reproduction, and the first notions of the credit system. From these assumptions, this work identifies the main movements of the expansion of the financialization of capital in recent years, particularly with the development of the stock market, the promotion of the derivatives, the influence over dependent countries and, above all, the intensification of competition and exploitation of the labor force. This whole process strengthens the productive and reproductive processes of capital by accelerating its rotation and expanding its relations to all dimensions of social life.