From the introduction:

The topic of this essay is the description of capital market speculations as a phenomenon of the society as a whole in contrast to the mere economic dimension of the phenomenon. While there is lots of theory on the latter, the societal dimension of capital market speculations has been rarely analyzed. Besides the overlaying questions, where in society the phenomenon of capital market speculations emerges and to which part(s) of the society its construction can be attributed, additional problems will be addressed. On the foundational level, these include the role and understanding of concepts such as time, rationality, risk and uncertainty, as well as the importance of semantics for the functioning of speculative operations in capital markets. Another question to be addressed is how the economic sciences approach the phenomenon of capital market speculations. Further to the foundational problems, the following more specific questions in particular will be subject of this essay: Where are the borders of the economic system and who draws the line between the items allotted to the economic system and those excluded from any kind of scarcity considerations? What is the recursive relation between the economic prognoses of prices and their actual development? Which are the consequences of speculative activities on society as a whole? The study of these questions requires, first of all, conceptual preparations, including an introduction to the system’s theoretical description of society as a social and thus, as a communication system. The development of the theoretical framework will provide a comprehensive system of concepts that allows the further above stated questions to be addressed. Beyond that, it will give an analytical toolbox which can be used for further specific questions not addressed in this essay.