The book analyzes the financialization of the Brazilian territory to identify its main actors, technical systems and processes. The work is divided into three parts, which correspond to the three main scales of analysis of the national financial system: 1. the global scale, which defines the relative position of Brazil in the international division of financial work, emphasizing the role of São Paulo as an international financial centre; 2 the national level, which demonstrates the recent development of the financial and banking system (after 1964), with emphasis on the location and regionalization of bank headquarters and branches, as well as the new electronic channels for the provision of banking services (ATMs, points-of-sales, mobile and Internet banking); and 3. the local scale, which shows how these new financial agents and technical systems affect the Brazilian urban population, emphasizing the indebtedness of the lower income classes, as well as the emergence of alternative ways of using finance, such as fintechs, credit cooperatives and community banks.

This book critically addresses the model of social inclusion that prevailed in Brazil under the rule of the Workers Party from the early 2000s until 2015. It examines how the emergence of a mass consumer society proved insufficient, not only to overcome underdevelopment, but also to consolidate the comprehensive social protection system inherited from Brazil’s 1988 Constitution. By juxtaposing different theoretical frameworks, this book scrutinizes how the current finance-dominated capitalism has reshaped the role of social policy, away from rights-based decommodified benefits and towards further commodification. This constitutes the Brazilian paradox: how a center-left government has promoted and boosted financialization through a market incorporation strategy using credit as a lever for expanding financial inclusion. In so doing, it has pushed the subjection of social policy further into the logic of financial markets.

This book explores the impact of finance on urban spaces as well as cities' role in the social constitution and dissemination of financial logistics and techniques. It brings together literature from different disciplinary areas to increase our understanding of financialization. It observes how non-financial members of society, such as public bureaucrats, urban planners, the media and so on, are actively involved in the financialization of urban areas. With an explicit focus on Brazil, a developing country in the Global South, the book demonstrates how the country has been grappling with complex and contradictory processes of neoliberalization, decentralization, re-democratization and institutional-legal strengthening of frameworks for urban and regional planning, stressing the relations between urban space and finance capital. With a distinct view of filling a gap in the current literature on urban financialization, the book aims to focus on less developed areas in this field and link them with the literature on social studies of finance. This makes the text relevant for academics and scholars of urban studies and planning theory, geography, development studies and political economy, as well as scholars in the US and Europe interested in understanding Brazilian patterns of financialization.

Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets presents a collection of works from social scientists that offer insights into mortgage markets and the causes, effects, and aftermath of the recent 'subprime' mortgage crisis. Provides an even-handed and detailed analysis of mortgage markets and the recent housing crisis Features contributions from various social scientists with expertise in critical social theories who have assembled and analyzed detailed empirical information Offers a unique and powerful rebuttal to many of the misleading popular explanations of the crisis and its aftermath Reveals how racial minorities and the neighbourhoods inhabited by them are more likely to be targeted by subprime and predatory lenders

After the 1994 Real Plan ended 14 years of high inflation in Brazil, the country's economy was expected to grow quickly. Here, the author discusses Brazil's economic trajectory from the mid-1990s to the present Lula administration.

This edited collection explores the boundaries between political and financial geographies, focusing on the linkages between the changing strategies, policies and institutions of the state. It also investigates banks and other financial institutions affected by both state policies and a globalizing financial system, and the financial resources available to firms as well as households. In so doing, the book highlights how an empirical focus on the semi-periphery of the financial system may generate new perspectives on the entanglement between (geo) politics and finance.

This book asks the important question of whether public banks are a better alternative to profit-seeking private banks. Do public banks provide finance for development? Do they serve as stability anchors in financial markets? What kind of governance keeps public banks accountable to the public? Theoretically the book draws on the works of Minsky for the question on stability and on interpretative policy analysis for the issue of governance. It compares empirically three countries with significant public banks: Brazil, Germany, and India.