problem definition
•
a set of historical, material, and ontological
transformations in and of finance, as it
relates to the economy
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problem definition
•
Proliferation of credit derivatives in their many guises
•
Present systemic necessity but deep instability of secondary debt markets
•
Absolute interrelation of money markets and capital markets
•
Capital flows required for growth, but in turn generate systemic instability, and
perpetuate inequity
•
Central banking techniques rig the system –but also save the system from itself
•
The death of Jimmy Stewart banking, and its replacement by so-called shadow
banking –rhizomatic, but lacks heterogeneity
•
Nascent hegemony of securitization as a mode of producing and circulating debt
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project. Of Synthetic Finance
Ontological examination of new differentiations in finance
•
Synthetic Finance (credit derivatives, etc.)
•
Securitization (aka structured finance)
Synthetic assets are
hyper-fungible,
topological, qualitative
multiplicities
Note
They change in kind
when repeated/divided
Synthetic asset + securitization = synthetic
CDO
Are chocked-full with
virtuality
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conceptual resources used to study the
ontology of finance
•
Topology (non-Euclidean geometry), group theory
(Synthetic assets are hyperfungible topological objects (i.e. their economic properties can warp,
bend, fold over, twist, etc.), unlike generic financial assets (e.g. traditional debt and equity)
•
Chaos theory, nonlinear dynamics, fractal geometry (DST)
(Synthetic assets can be created ex nihilo and ad infinitum –with nonadditive material effects.
Their markets are aperiodic but ordered, stable but highly irregular, far-from-equilibrium but
not necessarily without attractors –are marked by strange attractors)
•
Deleuze (transformation of mathematical and scientific concepts)
(The synthetic is a production of pure difference, but one which always announces itself in and
as simulation. It replicates an image of an object that is without likeness, an immanent copy of
a model which quickly overturns any grounds on which such a distinction would stand)
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Three models of economy outlined in A
Thousand Plateaus
1. The first type of economy is the root-economy, or the arborescent model (e.g.
planned economies)
2. The second type is the radicle or fascicular model of economy (e.g. capitalist
economies)
3. The third type is the rhizome model. (later they dub this an ‘economy of the
war machine’, or ‘dromocracy’ (e.g. markets without capitalism, equitability,
optionality, dynamic assemblages and crowned anarchies of order but without
central planning)
A Thousand Plateaus is proposing a new business model: dromocracy.
The wagers of dromocracy are actualizable in a DAO.
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what are the economic institutions of a DAO?
• n-number
ndimensional Dapps
(e.g. CPEs, CEOs))
• Blockchain,
contracts
smart
• Use
of the
hyperfungible
instruments of
synthetic finance
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The wagers of dromocracy
•
There is a wholly other model of economy allowing for autonomous
economic organization
•
We can use the fungible, topological, and nonlinear capacities of finance
for radical, universal, equitable, nomadic distributive purposes
•
Equitability (not equality) –this is not an equilibrium model, but induces
conditions ‘far-from equilibrium’, i.e. the pistons of difference continue to
pump away, full-throttle, the system stands ‘poised’ at the edge of chaos.
•
Nomadic distribution –not the redistribution of preproduced objects in
economic space, but the distribution of economic space itself.
•
A new financial economics (with new models) can be constructed using
the mathematical resources of fractal geometry and topology.
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machines of desire, technologies, assemblages
•
‘Desire is never separable from
the complex assemblages that
necessarily tie into molecular
levels, from microformations
already shaping postures,
attitudes, perceptions,
expectations, semiotic systems,
etc. Desire is never an
undifferentiated instinctual
energy, but itself results from a
highly developed, engineered
setup rich in interactions: a whole
supple segmentarity that
processes molecular energies….’
(TP pg. 215)
•
‘The principle behind a
technology is to demonstrate
that a technical element
remains abstract, entirely
undetermined as long as it
does not relate it to an
assemblage it presupposes. It
is the machine that is primary
in relation to the technical
element…It is not impossible
for weapons and tools, if they
are taken up by new
assemblages of
metamorphosis, to enter other
relations of alliance.’ (TP pg.
397-398, 402)
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