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Abstract Financialization, expressing the growing importance of finance in the modus operandi of our capitalist system, has emerged as a key concept in various heterodox approaches over the last dozen years - be they Post-Keynesians (E. Stockhammer, E. Hein), American Radicals (G. Epstein, G. Krippner), Marxists (J. Bellamy Foster, G. Dumenil) or French Régulationists (M. Aglietta, R. Boyer). But until now those various analysts have each looked at this very complex phenomenon from one or the other specific angle. In this article, I am trying to provide a more comprehensive analysis of financialization by tracing its two primary drivers - structural changes making non-financial actors more dependent on debt-financing as well as financial-income sources ("financial centralization") while also giving increased weight to the financial sector in the economy ("financial concentration"). The complex interaction between financial centralization and financial concentration has yielded a financialized growth dynamic fueling consecutive debt-financed asset bubbles in the center, the United States, that spurs export-led growth in the periphery. Framing this financialized growth dynamic in the Régulationist context as a historically conditioned accumulation regime, finance-led capitalism, I analyze its rise (1982 - 2007) in the wake of key changes in finance and its subsequent structural crisis (2007-2012) to provide a more complete approach to the crucial phenomenon of financialization.

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a model where the structure rather than the size of the financial sector explains its influence on income distribution. Because of information asymmetries, a financial sector dominated solely by profit‐maximizing financial intermediaries will increase income and wealth inequality as it gives preferential access to credit for high‐income agents, whereas a diversified inclusive financial sector with alternative models of finance, like cooperatives, will reduce the inequality gap. No full convergence in income distribution can be realized through finance only and there is still a need for redistribution policies. Accordingly, an objective function for cooperative financial institutions should define a desired pricing behaviour that can increase the income of members at a rate higher than the average growth rate of the economy.

Democracy is crucially important for the governance of global finance. Governing global finances involves highly political conflicts that cannot be resolved by technical experts or markets alone. Also, the frequency & severity of global financial crises have shown that regulation alone is not the answer. Prudential regulation has become linked with trade regulation & corporate governance, both of which are politically contentious. The analytical, ethical, & practical merits of democracy are discussed. The key developments that have occurred since the end of the 1990s in international financial regulation are considered. There has been a significant expansion in the types of discursive systems that need democracy & while some improvement has been made in involving democratic principles there still is much more that needs to be done. R. Larsen

In May 2008, the Australian government presented its budget to parliament solely in terms of the IMF Government Finance Statistics (GFS) accounting system; and in December 2008 it announced that all outcome financial statements were also to be GFS based.

The performance of Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) has been affected negatively by the current hypercompetitive economic environment which has been characterised by as unfair competition. Huge losses have been reported among MFIs in Kenya, this has forced MFIs to innovate differently; product, financial, organisational or market innovation. This has not yielded better results. The study sought to establish the moderating effect of the regulatory framework on the relationship between strategic innovation orientation and performance of MFIs using the case of Kenya. The indicators for the regulatory framework were; prudential guidelines, non-prudential guidelines, and government laws. A descriptive and explanatory research design was adopted as the research design with a target population of 13 MFIs from which a sample of 352 respondents was obtained using a proportionate stratified and simple random sampling technique. Both primary and secondary data was collected and analysed using multiple regression model. The regulatory framework was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between strategic innovation orientation and performance. The findings established that regulatory framework had a moderating effect on the relationship between strategic innovation orientation and performance of MFIs. This informs the importance of regulation and control by regulatory bodies and the government.