Profits from Production and Profits from Exchange: Financialization, Household Debt and Profitability in 21st-century Capitalism

One aspect of increased financialization in highincome industrialized countries is the growth and entrenchment of household debt. The debt borne by working-class households in Canada and the United States has risen in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This debt has opened a channel through which value created in the non-financial sector is transferred to financial firms, thereby enhancing the profitability of the financial sector itself while simultaneously raising the rate of exploitation of labor. These developments have profound implications for macroeconomic growth and capital accumulation.