This article is part of ourEconomy's 'Decolonising the economy' series.
The global hegemony of finance capital is based on burgeoning household debt accompanied by devastating dispossession. This is more evident in peripheral societies, where state investment in the rural economy is abandoned for the myth of expanding incomes through self-employment with the help of microfinance.
In Sri Lanka, as in many other developing countries, the pawning of gold jewellery, lease-hire purchasing and microfinance lending under the guise of creating livelihoods have mushroomed. Such financialisation of their economies greatly indebts vulnerable rural communities.
