Book excerpt: What are the links between things as diverse as the prices of pork bellies, interest rates, and corporate stock? They are all being translated into risk and priced through the system of derivative markets. Financial derivatives are now the largest form of financial transaction in the world, and they are transforming in pervasive ways the lived experience of capitalist economies. Financial derivatives are anchoring the global financial system and challenging the conventional understanding of ownership, money and capital. These challenges are examined in this book, providing a significant reinterpretation of contemporary capitalism that will be of interest to both social scientists and conventional finance scholars.