Description
Book SynopsisCarolyn Hardin offers a new way of understanding arbitragethe trading practice that involves buying assets in one market at a cheap price and immediately selling them in another market for a profitas a means of showing how its reliance upon taking on risk is fundamental to financial markets.
Trade Review“In this compelling work, Carolyn Hardin zeroes in on the founding paradox of modern finance—arbitrage or the possibility of risk-free gain—to illuminate the system of abstract capture in which we live. A bold new voice, Hardin updates the critique of capitalism for a financial age and proposes a new politics of risk-based solidarity for our times.” -- Melinda Cooper, author of * Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism *
“This brilliant and beautifully written book sets a new standard for the social study of finance by exposing the paradox that arbitrage, the most frequent evil in the theory of finance, is the most reliable producer of financial profits in financial markets. This is a book for all scholars, both within and outside business schools, who want to find alternatives to the hegemony of finance in our everyday lives.” -- Arjun Appadurai, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
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Capturing Finance provides a robust framework for analyzing arbitrage and the financial system it underpins. Drawing chiefly on Moishe Postone, with a touch of Deleuze and Guattari, Hardin combines a precise and flexible theoretical apparatus . . . with detailed technical analysis.” -- Jordan Sjol * Journal of Cultural Economy *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction. Into the Lion's Den 1
1. Capitalism as Capture 11
2. Arbitrage in Theory 33
3. Arbitrage IRL 49
4. The Postonian Turn 68
5. Money Machines 87
6. The Emperor's New Clothes 105
Conclusion. A Politics of Risk 120
Notes 131
References 143
Index 155
