IMAGINED FUTURES

In a capitalist system, consumers, investors, and corporations orient their activities toward a future that contains opportunities a nd risks. How actors assess uncertainty is a problem that economists have tried to solve through general equilibrium and rational ex pectations theory. Powerful as these analytical tools are, they underestimate the futures unknowability by assuming that markets, i n the aggregate, correctly forecast what is to come.Jens Beckert adds a new chapter to the theory of capitalism by demonstrating how fictiona...[Read more]