Founder's profit in financial capitalism

Abstract

This essay offers an instrumental assessment of Finance Capital guided by the goal of conceptualizing the social relations and contradictions of contemporary finance as it has emerged from these changes. It does so by offering contemporary interpretations of two particularly useful analytical tools originally offered by Hilferding: His methodological approach to the relationship between financial and industrial capital, and the identification of ‘founders’ profit’ as a peculiar mode of appropriation arising from capital-market competition. These two contributions offer a rich conceptual toolkit to tackle financial relations, as they exist today.