“Financialization” is strongly associated with the neoliberal decades. A dense eco-system of private financial institutions, with central banks at the helm, gained an outsized role in shaping domestic and international economies. Are there ways for governments in a post-neoliberal world to discipline and rein in the power of finance? If so, should this be done by shrinking the footprint of financial institutions on the economy, or by regulating them so that they serve the public interest? Might that public interest include programs to broaden access to credit and to deploy resources to stimulate new industries, innovation, equality, and sustainability? Finally, how to interpret the ‘crypto turn’: as an expression of the desire to democratize finance or as an urge to free financial exchanges from the last vestiges of public oversight?
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