Recognition of early financialisation in the writings of John Maynard Keynes

This chapter associates Keynes’s insights with the process of financialisation. First, we underline the relevance of his analyses on studying the current period of financialisation, i.e. the neoliberal era. Second, we use his analytical framework to demonstrate that the period between 1900 and 1933 corresponded to a phase of (early) financialisation, since similar conditions prevailed then and now. We give particular emphasis to how financial interests and motives shaped policy decisions and altered firms’ behaviour.