Description
Timothy Sinclair’s work on credit rating agencies (CRAs) and the problem of creditworthiness was shaped by a long but uneven engagement with the idea of history as a mode of thought. Although occluded in much of his early work, it eventually became more prominent as a critical albeit largely unheralded feature of his thinking about global governance and especially CRAs. But by the publication of his final book, To the Brink of Destruction, one form of the idea of history – as a mental framework – had assumed a central role in his explanation for why American CRAs had so easily facilitated the conditions which produced the global financial crisis of 2008/09. In this sense the idea of history should be considered an important feature of Sinclair’s ‘social foundations’ approach to creditworthiness. His use of the idea of history is not without complications, however, most critically in relation to the application of the distinction between the synchronic and diachronic aspects of historical structures, and especially whether this distinction can be applied to institutions. In this paper I consider these tensions in light of the heuristic value of Sinclair’s use of the idea of history as a critical tool of investigation. I pay particular attention to its place in his broader theoretical framework, including how it helps to frame his understanding of institutional agency. I also ask whether his application of the synchronic/diachronic distinction provides suitable grounds for his conclusions about the authority of CRAs in the construction of creditworthiness. My conclusion is that Sinclair’s appropriation of the idea of history as a mode of thought, notwithstanding the challenges of his own unique formulation, places him firmly in the tradition of critical political economy and its efforts to advance our understanding of how the global political economy operates.