Finanzialisierung als Kernproblem eines sozialen Europas

For more than three decades increasing financialization i.e. the growing importance of the financial sector and its logic, has been shaping the European economy. This process has not only led to increasing economic instability, but also to increasing social inequality. An important driving force of financialization in Europe is the EU Common Market programme, recently supported by the introduction of the euro and the euro rescue activities. The EU is still potentially the most well-suited institution for limiting financialization, in the pursuit of a social Europe. However, both the legal foundation, as well as the political balance of power in the EU lead us to expect a further deepening of financialization and its social imbalance.