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Financial wizardry and the Golden City: tracking the financial crisis through Pforzheim, Germany
Author(s) -
Hendrikse Reijer P,
Sidaway James D
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/tran.12024
Subject(s) - restructuring , financial crisis , capitalism , negotiation , state (computer science) , finance , payment , financial system , business , economics , political science , law , keynesian economics , politics , algorithm , computer science
The global financial crisis is complex and uneven. This paper focuses on the propagation and mediation of the crisis via a case study of the city of Pforzheim, in southwest Germany. In 2004 the municipality signed a number of derivative contracts with Deutsche Bank, aiming to limit interest payments. However, since the early days of the crisis these contracts have produced heavy losses. Attempts to restructure them (involving the world's largest derivatives dealer JPM organ Chase) compounded losses. This study explores the making, unfolding, interpretation, negotiation and contestation of this crisis, enabling wider critical analysis of state–finance relations across the bounded spaces of local government, through transnational firms and intersecting varieties (and scales) of capitalism.