The crisis of the finance-led regime of accumulation and the situation of Brazil

Abstract

There seems to be no doubt about the fact that capitalism has undergone drastic transformations over the last thirty years. Among critics, theses on the financial nature of the process of accumulation have been prominent. One of these is the theory by French economist François Chesnais (1998, 2005) whose main proposition is that, as of the late 1970s, capitalism would be reproducing itself by means of an accumulation regime in which financial valuation prevails. In this article, we attempt to show that the current crisis is a crisis of this regime of accumulation, and to reflect upon the situation and prospects for Brazil in this context. In order to do so, we will first present a brief theoretical review of concepts involved (first section), then present the main features of the financialized regime (second section), recall the history of the way this regime has operated in the last three decades (third section), and, finally, reflect upon Brazil?s present situation and prospects in this context (fourth section).