Financial Elites

The ideology of free financial markets, deregulation, unregulated capital mobility, along with privatization and disruptive technological forces, is determining a profound and contradictory impact on both the economic functioning and the social structure of capitalism. The main beneficiary of the current globalization and neoliberal policies have surely been the financial elites. The question of the role of financial elites remains highly significant in social sciences and for society at large, as deep as the challenges posed by the empirical identification, description and critical analysis of their existence are their locations and power with respect to the various domestic and world society at large. Challenges and opportunities related to the definition and study of contemporary financial elites are presented here, along with a brief historical account across the evolution of capitalism: financial elites have always played an important role in society. This will bridge financial elites to contemporary financialization processes and its most problematic, critical aspects.