From perplexity to counter-hegemonic monetary–financial action. Context and challenges facing global financial speculation

Abstract

This article aims to provide elements for dimensioning the phenomenon of financial speculation in a global scale in a way that is accessible to different audiences. To do this, it presents the main available statistics and analyzes them from a critical perspective, incorporating specific data of the argentine financial system and its transformation since the dictatorial law of financial institutions (1976) to the present. With a broad view of the field and using categories of social and solidarity economy, the work shows that, rather than perplexity facing the speculation without limits, there is an abundance of actions that realize that it is possible to use monetary–financial instruments as means for other purposes and not just as a goal itself. Appreciating the contributions that can be made from the economic sciences, the work ends by emphasizing the need to build bridges with other disciplines and to face the great challenge of exploring both experiences with a non–capitalist rationality and theories beyond the economic mainstream and its heterodoxy.

Keywords

• especulación financiera • finanzas solidarias • monedas sociales