Description: Most of us think of capitalism as primarily an economic phenomenon. Yet, it also has a profoundly cultural dimension that includes culturally specific forms of risk taking, speculation, and even money and capital. This course will explore contemporary phenomenon such as speculation, booms and busts, and the stock market, and use them to discuss some of the classic work on the "cultures of capitalism", including Marx, Simmel, Kracauer, and contemporary writers such as Jameson, DeBord and Virillio. This is not an introductory course in economics but will look at how people talk and write about culture and capitalism.