Labor and finance in the United States

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511794537.013

13 - Labor and finance in the United States

from Part III - Labor’s evolution in the new economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011

Sanford M. Jacoby

Edited by

Cynthia A. Williams and

Peer Zumbansen

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Cynthia A. Williams: Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Peer Zumbansen: Affiliation:
Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto

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Summary

Introduction

We live in an era of financialization. Since 1980, capital markets have expanded around the world; capital shuttles the global instantaneously. Shareholder concerns drive executive decision-making and compensation, while the fluctuations of stock markets are a source of public anxiety. So are the financial scandals that have regularly occurred in recent years: junk bonds in the 1980s; lax accounting and stock manipulation in the early 2000s; and debt securitization today.

We also live in an era of rising income inequality and employment risk. The gaps between top and bottom incomes and between top and middle incomes have widened since 1980. Greater risk takes various forms, such as wage and employment volatility and the shift from employers to employees of responsibility for pensions and, in the United States, for health insurance.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Embedded Firm
Corporate Governance, Labor, and Finance Capitalism
, pp. 277 - 317

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511794537.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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