Financialisation and the Malaysian Political Economy

Abstract

This paper argues that taking a short-term look at Malaysia's response to the financial crisis of 1997 -1998 does not adequately assess the socio-economic transformation that was propagated by the crisis. Most importantly, it falls short of accounting for the shift from a bank-based to a capital market-based financial system that occurred in post-crisis Malaysia and the ensuing increasing financialisation of Malaysian capitalism. This shift has significantly affected both corporate and individual financial cultures and led to the emergence of a new politics of debt. It coincides with rising levels of household indebtedness. Moreover, it has set in motion a metamorphosis of the institutions set up to govern Malaysian capitalism.Este artículo afirma que al observar a corto plazo la respuesta de Malasia a la crisis financiera de 1997 -1998, no se logra evaluar la transformación socioeconómica que generó la crisis. Aún más importante, no logra explicar el cambio de un sistema financiero con base en la banca a un sistema con base de mercado de capitales, cambio que se dio durante la post crisis en Malasia, generando un incremento de la financiación del capitalismo. Este cambio afectó significativamente tanto a la cultura financiera individual, como corporativa y condujo al surgimiento de nuevas políticas de endeudamiento. Coincidió con el incremento del nivel de endeudamiento de los hogares. Es más, condujo a la metamorfosis de las instituciones establecidas para regir el capitalismo de Malasia.

“Neighbours First, Bankers Second”: Mobilising financial citizenship in Singapore

“…As financialisation research remains limited outside of Anglo-American economies (for some exceptions, see Gabor, 2010;Rethel, 2010;Ashman et al, 2011), this study on financial citizenship and the Singapore state contributes to a fuller picture of financialisation as it unfolds across territories. With a growing middle class in the rapidly developing economies of Asia, inadequate social security provision, and increasing demand for financial products for wealth accumulation and security, the role of finance in everyday life is set to become more prominent and pervasive.…”

Financialisation in emerging economies: a systematic overview and comparison with Anglo-Saxon economies

“…the East Asian economies of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia (Rethel, 2010), Singapore (Daniels, 2015), South Korea and Thailand as well as India. For this study Hong Kong is particularly important.…”

“…Literature on financialisation in emerging and developing countries gradually developed in the context of Latin American countries, parts of emerging Europe, South Africa and some East Asian 'tigers'. Similar to the literature on financialisation in advanced economies, research on financialisation among emerging market economies (EMEs) focuses on changes within a specific country over time (see, for instance, Rethel, 2010;Correa, Vidal, & Marshall, 2012;Ashman & Fine, 2013) or the changing nature of an economic sector (e.g. non-financial companies, NFCs) in a small number of countries (Demir, 2009;Becker, Jäger, Leubolt, & Weissenbacher, 2010).…”

“…South Africa). Hence, domestic institutions and internal dynamics have to be studied carefully to understand the differences in financialisation trajectories among EMEs (as argued by Rethel, 2010, for Malaysia; see also Becker et al, 2010).…”

The Coevolution of Finance and Property Rights: Evidence from Transition Economies

“…This broad consensus is subdivided into three separate approaches on understanding the spread of financialization: (i) financialization as a regime of accumulation; (ii) financialization of the firm and the ascendance of shareholder value; and (iii) the permeation of financialization into everyday life. In turn, these three approaches have spawned countless research studies into the various attributes of financialization, mainly focused on the US (Krippner 2005) or Europe (Becker and Jäger 2012), with only a few going beyond these geographical areas (notable exceptions being Becker et al 2010;Gabor 2010;Rethel 2010).…”