‘FIRE’ on the horizon. The role of the state in the process of financialization of a national economy

Abstract

This paper opens the black box of the role of the state when regulating the process of financialization of a national economy. For this purpose, we firstly study two recent Spanish executives’ closeness and similarity to financial, insurance and real estate sectors – usually identified as the ‘FIRE sector’. We secondly study how the process of specific law production and regulation during two different political terms has significant effects in the finance, insurance, and real estate complex. Our research explains that this specific regulation is related to the evolution of the FIRE sector in Spain, something that reflects the role of state agencies to favour financialization dynamics.