After Economy?: Social Logics of the Derivative

The massive capital bailout launched in 2008 proceeded on a threat that without it “there would be no economy.” What if that turned out to be the case? Capital had claimed economy as the name of its social relations: the task here is to explore what social logic is disclosed through the derivative that would account for its expansion and impact beyond profit-taking exchange or as a mere succession in an unbroken chain of evermore-effective regimes of accumulation. Here “logic” will need to be a point of departure, not closure or completion, a sensibility that draws things together in a particular way while moving beyond itself. Capital accumulation has also generated an abundance of social relations, mutualities, and encumbrances that it could not abide. It flees the socialities it engenders and moves toward those it wants but a part of. The derivative is no different. It draws upon all manner of value forms that are already in motion if not already to hand.