Renowned scholar Arjun Appadurai argues that the economic collapse of 2008, while indeed spurred on by greed, ignorance, weak regulation, and irresponsible risk-taking, was ultimately a failure of language. To prove this point, he takes us into the world of derivative finance, which is now the core of contemporary trading and the primary target of blame for the collapse.

With his characteristic clarity, Appadurai explains one of the most complicated aspects of our modern economy, and makes the critical link between the numerical force of money and the linguistic force of what we say we will do with it.

Banking on Words will be of considerable interest to scholars and students of cultural and social anthropology, economics, and language and linguistics.

Contents: Preface. 1. The logic of promissory finance. 2. The entrepreneurial ethic and the spirit of financialism. 3. The ghost in the financial machine. 4. The sacred market. 5. Sociality, uncertainty and ritual. 6. The charismatic derivative. 7. The wealth of individuals. 8. The global ambitions of finance. 9. The end of the contractual promise. Notes. References. Index.