The Violence of Rent: The Exploitation of Natural Resources As New Fields of Accumulation

In the course of far-reaching institutional changes concentrated financial capital in the form of pension & mutual funds has increased its power. Due to problems of over-accumulation, capital is seeking new fields for investment & placement including the control, appropriation & commodification of natural resources. These new fields are sources of continuous rent income based on the enforcement of property rights. Rent income has become a central form of valorization of natural resources in finance-dominated capitalism. The enforcement of such property rights is based on processes of dispossession & on specific relations of power & violence. The control over territories is a key prerequisite for the extraction of natural resources & their finance-dominated valorization. Adapted from the source document.