I have read several accounts about how there was tremendous innovation in financial instruments (derivatives like swaps, futures, options etc) coinciding with the collapse of Bretton Woods and the move to flexible exchange rates in the 1970s and the process of securitization beginning in the 1980s. Yet it seems to me that almost none of these financial instruments (at least those listed above) are actually new innovations. In some cases they have existed and have been used for centuries. What does seem different after the collapse of Bretton Woods was how they were being used and the increase in their use. While there certainly were many new forms or manifestations of these existing derivatives and other financial instruments as a result of securitization, they do not appear qualitatively different.
What, if any, financial instruments developed since the 1970s are actually new? Thanks Jayson Funke Graduate School of Geography Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, MA 01610
