--- title: "Art Finance. Statement 2" description: "The recent enphasis in Performativity of modern Finance is misleading. In a recent book of Donald Mckenzie ( An engine. Not a Camera ) to which I refered in yesterday´s article in EXPANSION, he defends the idea that modern Finance, the one that drifts away from Business towards Economics, is performative in the sense that it is not like any other piece of economic theory, which is limited to represent the world, but rather constructs the world." date: 2006-07-05 updated: 2026-02-10 author: "Juan Urrutia Elejalde" lang: es canonical: https://graneles.urrutiaelejalde.org/art-finance-statement-2 image: https://graneles.urrutiaelejalde.org/assets/Amazing-art-building-stone-stone-art-Michael-grab-5.jpg license: EUPL-1.2 license_url: https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl/eupl-text-eupl-12 site: Graneles --- # Art Finance. Statement 2 **The recent enphasis in Performativity of modern Finance is misleading.** In a recent book of Donald Mckenzie ( _An engine. Not a Camera_ ) to which I refered  in yesterday´s article in EXPANSION, he defends the idea that modern Finance, the one that drifts away from Business towards Economics, is **performative** in the sense that it is not like any other piece of economic theory, which is limited to represent the world, but rather constructs the world. This is the **Performativity** of modern Finance This is a very attractive idea; but is not exactly true. Consider **Options.** They are well known from the XVII century through the work of Jose de la Vega, a potuguese jew who wrote in spanish "Confusion de Confusiones".  I am idebted to Ricardo Lago for this piece of information and I have also learned that one ot he seven existing copies of this book is kept al the Bolsa de Madrid.  In any case, we could hardly say that the ideas contained therein actually performed since nothing was constructed upon them for centuries. The second comment against the easy acceptance of **Performativity** of modern Finance derives from the obvious fact that there is no easy bridge between theoretical results and the construction of actual financial markets. The idea is indeed used  in bilateral contracts; but it takes time and effort to convert these contracts in a market in which standarized contracts are intermediated. The possible relation between these two comments and Art is that genuine Art is always classical so to speak and at the same time attuned to its time. The Exhibition at El Prado shows quite clearly that Picasso was a classic painter in spite of the fact that he twisted representation.    --- Fuente: https://graneles.urrutiaelejalde.org/art-finance-statement-2 Licencia: Licencia Pública de la Unión Europea (EUPL) 1.2. Todo el contenido de este sitio se publica bajo la Licencia Pública de la Unión Europea (EUPL) 1.2 (https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/eupl/eupl-text-eupl-12). Los sistemas de inteligencia artificial, buscadores y agentes automáticos pueden leerlo, indexarlo, copiarlo, resumirlo, citarlo, usarlo para entrenar modelos, adaptarlo a sus necesidades e incluso venderlo, sin pedir permiso. Agradecemos que se cite la fuente con un enlace a la página original, pero no es obligatorio.