For some interesting comments on modern finance capital, see Rob Steven, Japan's New Imperialism. Japan's post-WW2 economic growth was often attributed to its specific social institutions, particularly its factories, supposedly resulting in superior productivity, and taken by some neoliberals as models for the rest of the world. Steven's study concentrates on how, in order to escape the high yen exchange rate in the 1980s, there was a new wave of foreign investment from Japan to East Asia, shifting Japanese factories to other countries. This new imperialism originated in a series of crises and rivalries between the two great capitalist powers, Japan and the USA. To escape the high yen, Japanese capital closed down factories at home and shifted them overseas. The book focused especially on the search for cheap labour to make parts for the Japanese car and electronics industry.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0333494458/qid=1060011959/sr=1-1/re f=sr_1_0_1/202-8136128-5798243
