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In the contemporary conjuncture financialization is driving a fundamentalreorganization of American capitalism and increasingly that of other economiessignificantly impacting the trajectory of the world-system. This paper interrogates the nature and extent of financialization, the ways it is adding to systemic risk with attention to the future of the dollar, and implications for the relationship between US based finance and new emerging centers of the world-system.

Discussion begins with a look at the relationship between war & natural resources in the context of current US involvement in Iraq. Following brief outlines of cases illustrating the war-resources connection, remarks are offered regarding US designs on Iraq in light of historical US foreign policy to secure Middle East oil. Attention is given to the supply-demand relationship of oil, changes in the global oil market that indicate the loss of Anglo-American Big Oil petrol dominance, resistance to imperialism, & environmental implications of water scarcity. D. Edelman

A discussion of contemporary imperialism from a left perspective draws on the thought of Harry Magdoff. Identified are the structural elements of imperialism, which is seen to take different forms in different stages of capitalist development & shares characteristics with the imperium of ancient empires. These elements are contrasted with the mainstream economic perspective on free market exchange, taking issue with the idea that free trade would have been a more cost-effective policy in prior periods of imperialist expansion. The 21st-century form of imperialism is seen to center on neoliberal globalization, & is also seen to provide a conceptual frame for a counterhegemonic interpretation on which to build opposition. Adapted from the source document.