The evolution of financial markets in the neoliberal era has created serious problems for large nonfinancial corporations already harmed by the slow aggregate demand growth and destructive competition of the period. Financial market pressures led to shorter planning horizons, a declining allegiance of stake-holders to long-term corporate goals, and a large increase in the percentage of cash flow paid to financial market agents. The net result is a “neoliberal paradox”: financial markets demand that corporations achieve ever higher profits, while product markets make this result impossible to achieve. The neoliberal paradox helps explain the outbreak of financial accounting fraud in the late 1990s.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.