by Michael Hudson
Washington Post
[…] Our economy has increasingly been financialized, and the result is a sluggish economy with stagnant wages. We need to decide whether to stop the cycle and save the economy at large or to stay in thrall to our banks and bondholders. Without clearing our debt, the economy will continue to languish in debt deflation and polarization between creditors and debtors.
As a statistical measure, financialization is the degree to which debt accounts for a rising proportion of income or the value of an asset, such as a company or piece of property. The ratio tends to rise until defaults lead to a crisis that wipes out the debt, converts it into equity or transfers assets from defaulting debtors to creditors.