Research in Progress Seminar - Don Kalb and Oane Visser

Looking for new ways to interpret the failings of the neo-liberal

economy, this article argues that financialist capitalism at the eve of

the 2008 financial crisis shows striking resemblance with the informal

workings of Soviet economy at the eve of its collapse. State capture, a

large ´virtual economy´, the inability of agencies to get insight into

economic and financial operations, the short term orientations of

managers not coinciding with enterprise viability, and a ´mystification

of risk´ are some of the similarities which will be discussed. It is

argued that not only the origins but also the aftermath of the crisis

may be structurally similar.