Financialization: Reducing Everything We Value to a Ruthless Bottom Line

By Marybeth Gardam

April 2024

In January, 2024, 33% of all house sales were purchased by investors – not by individuals or families. These dwellings, turned into cash for a select few, demonstrate in dramatic terms the transfer of wealth and resources from lower and middle income families to financial institutions and independent affluent investors whose only concern is profiteering. Real estate is just one area where the drive to turn real resources into cash is eliminating options for women and families.

On Tuesday, April 16th, the Women, Money & Democracy Committee of WILPF US will examine the phenomenon of financialization and its role in widening the wealth gap while threatening democracy and human rights. Join the conversation at 8pm EST/ 7pm CST/ 6pm MT/ 5pm PST.

Author Rickey Gard Diamond will offer her perspective, discussing her recent Ms. Magazine article on the subject and a recorded Economy Of Our Own Zoom conversation from February.  

Here's the meeting link: Join Zoom Meeting

  • Meeting ID: 899 6162 3011
  • Passcode: U7vgs5aK

Learn more before joining our meeting:

  • Our partner organization An Economy of Our Own hosted an important zoom conversation about this subject in February.  You can view it here.
  • Rickey Gard Diamond, of the W$D Committee and author of the book “Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change”, wrote an article for Ms. Magazine about how private equity is stealing our common wealth and widening the wealth gap. Read it here.
  • The Bretton Woods Project, which monitors and critiques the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, addressed the issue of how financialization erodes human rights around the world. Read it here.
     
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