On the Moral and Political Nature of Financial Devices: The Case of Felices y Forrados (Happy and Loaded)

Abstract

Felices y Forrados —Happy and Loaded— was a Chilean financial advisory company that recommended its users where to invest their mandatory pension funds. This article proposes that Felices y Forrados, like any financial adviser or device, is a set of technical, moral, and political elements assembled with the purpose of acquiring legitimacy and attracting clients. Methodologically, the article follows the discourses of Felices y Forrados, regulators, and traders in the Chilean capital market. The article discusses the case in three movements, arguing that it is crucial to consider political aspects and moral discourses to understand any financial device. This particular advisory company could be understood as a “parasite” that disputes legitimacy by giving advice and simultaneously adding its own discourses and recipes to gain political legitimacy and produce a moral standard in its three movements. To this end, Felices y Forrados was able to engage in public disputes with fund management companies and authorities while joining forces with grassroot movements. However, the other parties are also political and morally oriented entities, and this struggle ended with the banning of Felices y Forrados from its business activities.