The growing influence of financial markets, firms, and instruments. Though there is a long history of finance, credit, and debt, financialization is typically thought of as a set of processes that began accelerating in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to the contemporary moment in which a global network of financial institutions have achieved imposing scale and power. Key components of financialization include financial instruments (e.g., stock markets, mutual funds, dividends, stock buybacks, derivatives), financial strategies (e.g., asset management, private equity, hedge funds, venture capital), and state support (e.g., central banks, financial deregulation, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund).

DEFINE: Defines financialization as accelerating processes since the 1970s-1980s, drawing out its instruments, strategies, and state support components.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 488