Who explains the financial crisis? Financial market analysis between market-radical and conspiracy theory narratives By Silke Otsch [This working paper from the 9/6/2018 Darmstadt meeting "Taking Back Control: On the global financial crisis and controlling the financial system" is translated abridged from the German on the Internet.] After the financial crisis, high expectations were prominent in civil society in contrast to many experts who warned of the financial crisis. Losers of the system would see and tackle their disadvantage. Theoretical economic paradigms like faith in the balance of the market were shattered. An overall social learning effect would bring about corrections of the system. That was the assumption. Meanwhile, more academic studies confirm positions of critical civil society referring to financial market controls or inequality as crisis-drivers. However, social movements engaged for remedying deficiencies have little approval while nationalists and neoliberals mobilize. Persons positioning themselves as opponents of the system in the "new" rightwing camp are developing their presence. Political actors derive justifications from interpretations of the financial crisis. This article investigates whether this assumption is correct. Which actors explain the financial crisis, and in what way? What justifications and conclusions do they draw from their interpretation?
Austria in Top-Dog Capitalism By Silke Otsch [This article is translated abridged from the German on the Internet, www.academia.edu.] In "The Great Transformation," Karl Polanyi describes how the society of the 19th century with its middle-class – pacifist and anti-imperialist ideas and the internationallyoriented economy turned to nationalist policies within a few decades. A protectionist economic policy instead of a balanced policy between different social groups is one example. Fascist discourses appeared in Northern- and Southern Europe, Germany, and Japan, and fascist groups were supported by conservative elites in the alliance against socialists. The problems ultimately escalated in the world wars. One main cause of this collapse, according to Polanyi, was the institutional anchoring of the market principle in the 19th century that replaced need-oriented with profit-oriented economies, made work, nature, and money into commodities and set profit above other