Conservatives versus wildcats : a sociology of financial conflict / Simone Polillo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Polillo, Simone, 1978-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Banks and banking--Social aspects--Case studies.

Banks and banking.

Credit--Social aspects--Case studies.

Credit.

Finance--Social aspects--Case studies.

Finance.

Banks and banking--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Banks and banking--Social aspects--Italy--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (308 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For decades, the banking industry seemed to be a Swiss watch, quietly ticking along. But the recent financial crisis hints at the true nature of this sector. As Simone Polillo reveals in Conservatives Versus Wildcats, conflict is a driving force. Conservative bankers strive to control money by allying themselves with political elites to restrict access to credit. Barriers to credit create social resistance, so rival bankers—wildcats—attempt to subvert the status quo by using money as a tool for breaking existing boundaries. For instance, wildcats may increase the circulation of existing currencies, incorporate new actors in financial markets, or produce altogether new financial instruments to create change. Using examples from the economic and social histories of 19th-century America and Italy, two decentralized polities where challenges to sound banking originated from above and below, this book reveals the collective tactics that conservative bankers devise to legitimize strict boundaries around credit—and the transgressive strategies that wildcat bankers employ in their challenge to this restrictive stance.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue

Introduction

1. Money, Banks, and Creditworthiness

2. Banking and Finance as Organized Conflict

3. Institutions and the Struggle over Creditworthiness in the Nineteenth-Century United States

4. Wildcats, Reputations, and the Formation of the Federal Reserve

5. Italian Elites and the Centralization of Creditworthiness

6. Italian Creditworthiness

7. Conclusions

Appendix. Historical Variation in Banking Power

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804785556

0804785554

OCLC:

849246161