"Basak Kus has gifted us a sophisticated analysis of the twin currents of financialization and neoliberalism. Rejecting simple references to Ronald Reagan or Milton Friedman, Kus documents the fundamental political, ideological, and economic forces that have created a risk society, especially the risks generated by financialization. Economic theories were crucial in creating not only deregulation, but its evil siblings of policy drift in the face offinancialization and neutered regulation. There is no room in the profoundly micro-economic regulatory model for systemic risk, so when the system became risky there was no way for the government to see it, muchless regulate. This is a book worth reading." --Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst"Taking the Polanyian perspective, Basak Kus presents a persuasive account of the recent growth of what she terms 'disembedded financialization'--a financialized economy that lacks basic protections against mitigating risks, including industry-wide systemic risks, broader socio-economic risks and financial risks borne by individual consumers. Writing in a clear prose that makes the book accessible to a wider audience, Kus's lucid analysis underscores the socialand human costs of financialization, and the real threat it can pose for the future of our democracy." --Alya Guseva, Boston University, and author of Into the Read: The Birth of the Credit CardMarket in Postcommunist Russia"Taking the Polanyian perspective, Basak Kus presents a persuasive account of the recent growth of what she terms 'disembedded financialization'-a financialized economy that lacks basic protections against mitigating risks, including industry-wide systemic risks, broader socio-economic risks and financial risks borne by individual consumers.

Writing in a clear prose that makes the book accessible to a wider audience, Kus's lucid analysis underscores the socialand human costs of financialization, and the real threat it can pose for the future of our democracy." -- Alya Guseva, Boston University, and author of Into the Read: The Birth of the Credit CardMarket in Postcommunist Russia"Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students." -- Choice.