Financialisation is a process and a current phase of the capitalist economy in which finance has become extraordinarily powerful, penetrating the daily lives of people and shaping international, national and local politics.
It is based on the speculation of different financial products, which are not linked to the real economy but to the financial economy where benefits are generated through the selling and buying of “fictitious” goods.
Globalisation, understood as the expansion of capitalism in the world, has promoted the expansion of the neoliberal paradigm leading to the
liberalisation of finance, thus lowering barriers, eliminating regulations and control mechanisms. Through political decisions, which have been
largely influenced by financial lobbies, an immense portfolio of mechanisms has been created to extract the maximum benefits from the productive and reproductive economy.
The predominance of finance is reflected in many areas of daily life. We experience a financialisation of energy, infrastructure, housing, education,
health, food, development and aid policies or climate. Instead of financing projects in these areas to promote the economy and development, today the predominant logic is to make the maximum profit through debt without taking into account the value of public services and goods. Everything can be commercialised and turned into a financial product; everything can become an asset class.