The chapter concerns the various aspects of a capitalist market economy. The stages of development of capitalism are recalled: primitive accumulation, merchant capitalism, manufacturing capitalism. Managerial capitalism (Berle and Means, Marris) assigns a central role to managers in the (hierarchic) power structure of the firm. Oligopoly (analysed through Sylos Labinis notion of the barriers to entry) and not competition is the dominant market form in this stage. Interlocking shareholdings and interlocking directorship then connect banks and companies in widespread power structures. The financialization of the economy leads then to the dominance of money managers, with a shorter time horizon and different priorities.

In the framework of a critical illustration of the contemporary history of economics, this chapter presents a general picture of developments in monetary theory and in the theory of financial markets, beginning with the monetarist approach. The transition in the policy field from domination of the Keynesian to domination of the monetarist approach is then illustrated. The theory of efficient financial markets is then considered, from the Modigliani–Miller theorem to Fama’s contribution. A section is devoted to various issues in the theory of financial markets and institutions, as an introduction to Minsky’s ‘truly Keynesian’ analysis of financial markets and their fragility as the repeated origin of crises. Finally, Minsky's idea of a new stage in the development of capitalism, the so-called money managers capitalism, is recalled.