Marazzi is one of the important theorists of Italian post-Fordism who has influenced the work of Negri, Virno, and others but until this volume his work has not been translated into English. This translation of his most recent work (published in Italy in 2002), with an introduction by Michael Hardt, has already become a key reference in understanding the 2008 financial crisis. Here Marazzi argues that the volatility of the financial markets must be understood through the rise of immaterial labor and the financialization/speculative aspects of the world markets. He also provides an analysis of the depression of 2001 and how the US aimed to improve the economy through war spending (the ‘war economy’).