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My new book, The City: London
and the Global Power of Finance, will be published by Verso Books on 12
April 2016. Below I note reviews that it has received so far and give a
full list of the contents. Details for ordering the book, which will be
available both in hardback (price £20 or less) and as an ebook (around £14), are available on the Verso website
and on Amazon.
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“Tony Norfield has provided a
strikingly original take on the international financial system by placing it
systematically within the world imperialist structure of power. He rejects the currently
fashionable path of interpreting the ascent of finance by looking at how the
leading financial sector agents, operating by way of banks, hedge funds,
private equity firms, and the like, manipulate the political-economic game to
increase their own personal wealth, while downplaying any useful economic
functions they might be fulfilling. He insists, on the contrary, that finance
be understood as a form of power deriving from the economic-cum political
capacity to compete at the highest levels of global capitalism, which
simultaneously endows a limited group of countries and corporations
disproportionate access to the world s resources and operates as the system's
indispensable nerve center. Norfield's unusual clarity as both an analyst and
expositor is reflected in his ability to lay out for his readers an
easy-to-grasp introduction to how finance works today in the process of
offering a detailed historically-rooted account of the multiple hierarchies and
privileged relationships through which global economic domination is
constructed and reproduced. The City is a tour de force, which will soon be
recognized as a formidable challenge to conventional wisdom and an essential
contribution in its own right.”
Robert Brenner, author of The Economics of Global Turbulence
“This book does the seemingly impossible:
rendering finance's mysteries transparent to the average reader, and at the
same time delivering a penetrating analysis of the global economic system that
will enlighten even experts. Tony Norfield has written a truly exciting and
important book.”
Paul Mattick, author of Business
as Usual
"It is not every day you read a book about global finance by a banker who quotes Lenin approvingly on page two. Unlike many of those who produce Marxist critiques of financial capitalism, Norfield writes from a position of experience: he has worked in the belly of the beast, and the book is the better for it... Just after the financial crisis, Rolling Stone magazine called Goldman Sachs the “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”. In this book, Norfield extends the metaphor to call London the “vampire’s blood bank”. In The City, he has done the research and pulled together the financial statistics that explain how the bloodsucking works.”
Brooke Masters, Financial Times*
“The City is a valuable addition to the critical analysis of the financialisation of our world. And Tony Norfield is an experienced and radical guide to London's role in this process. This book should be required reading for both bankers and activists alike.”
Joris Luyendjik, author of Swimming
with Sharks: My Journey into the World of the Bankers
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Chapter 1 Britain, Finance and the World
Economy
World economic and financial
power
Britain’s invisible empire
Understanding finance and
imperialism
Insights, conspiracies and
policy contingencies
The ‘End of History’ revisited
History
wakes up
‘New
Deal’ and no deal
The system
Chapter 2 The Anglo-American System
British or American finance?
Anglo-American financial
relationships in transition
Building beyond the Empire
New York versus London
The Anglo-American euromarket
British capitalism, finance and
official policy
Eurobonds and London’s
international role
Historical logic
Chapter 3 Finance and the Major Powers
Regime change
British imperial strategy and
the pound
State policy on financial
markets from 1979
Finance and the major powers
Gravity and the global system
Chapter 4 Power and Parasitism
Money-capitalists and financial
institutions
Interest-bearing capital
Banks
Brokers
Asset managers
Insurance companies
Pension funds
Bank credit creation
Financial securities and
economic power
The flexible noose
Finance and the rule of capital
Financial parasitism
Global parasitism, investment,
trade and finance
Who reaps the returns?
Finance as a normal part of the
system
Chapter 5 The World Hierarchy
The premier league
Capitalism and the state
The state and finance
Monopoly and imperialism
Monopoly today
World projection of power
Chapter 6 Profit and Finance
Return on equity and leverage
Comparing profits
Financial assets and derivatives
Financial revenues, surplus
value and securities
Trading revenues
The rate of profit and capital’s
limits
Outcomes
Profits, financial and global
developments
Moribund capitalism
Chapter 7 The Imperial Web
Currency, trade and seigniorage
‘Exorbitant privilege’
Running the world banking
system: US dollar power
Financial services exports
Equity markets, financial power
and control
Carving up the market
The daily grind
Chapter 8 Inside the Machine
Number crunching
The surplus from City dealing
Global capitalism’s financial
broker
UK financial account: FDI,
portfolio flows and bank funding
UK assets, liabilities and
returns
The City’s global network, tax
havens and global finance
Nice work, if you can get it
Chapter 9 Eternal Interests, Temporary Allies
‘Open for business’
Economics and domestic politics
Islamic finance and the City
China, BRICS and the Anglo-American system
Finance and the rule of capital
List of Tables
3.1 UK, Germany, France – patterns of trade, 1980 and 90 (% of
total)
3.2 Financial market shares of major powers, 1980-2001 (% of
total)
5.1 Corporate control by controlling company, 2007
6.1 UK monetary financial institutions’ financial balance sheet
7.1 Financial services export revenues, 2000-2013
7.2 Equity market capitalisation and turnover, 2013
8.1 UK current account balance and components, 1987-2014
8.2 External positions of banks, end-2014
8.3 Foreign exchange turnover, 1995-2013
8.4 OTC interest rate derivatives turnover, April 2013
8.5 UK financial account net annual flows, 1987-2014
8.6 Net external position of UK MFIs by location
List of Charts
5.1 The global pecking order, 2013-2014
6.1 Leverage ratios of major international banks, 2007–2011
6.2 Leverage ratios of major UK banks, 1960-2010
6.3 US corporate rate of profit, 1948-2013
6.4 US Federal Reserve financial support stays in place
8.1 Key components of the UK current account, 1987-2014
8.2 UK net foreign investment stock position, 1989-2014
8.3 Returns on UK foreign investment assets and liabilities,
1990-2014
* note of the FT review was added on 8 May 2016
1 comment:
Have just received my copy - congratulations - a real pleasure to read - very well written - lucid - giving fundamental old truths new verification - It's one of those books that I want to thrust into the hands of critical thinkers - and through your references and the footnotes extending my reading wishlist ... best regards - hope to make your SOAS launch
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