Business
Gordon Gekko Reborn
In the 1987 film Wall Street, the character Gordon Gekko famously declared, “Greed is good.” His creed became the ethos of a decade of corporate and financial-sector excesses that ended in the late 1980’s collapse of the junk-bond market and the Savings & Loan crisis. Gekko himself was packed off to prison. A generation later, [...]
Consolidators versus Stimulators
All intellectual systems rely on assumptions that do not need to be spelled out because all members of that particular intellectual community accept them. These “deep” axioms are implicit in economics as well, but, if left unscrutinized, they can steer policymakers into a blind alley. That is what is happening in today’s effort, in country [...]
Restorative Business – An alternative Business Model to accelerate Sustainable Development
On launching the 2020 new economic vision for Europe, the President of the European Commission, Manuel Barroso, opened with these words: ‘The crisis is a wake-up call, the moment where we recognise that “business as usual” would consign us to a gradual decline, to the second rank of the new global order. This is Europe’s [...]
Inside-out: Goldman Scandal shows who the real Insiders are
The financial world has been rocked – just as it appeared to be recovering its poise – by the news that the US financial market regulator, the SEC, has accused Goldman Sachs, the most masterful of Wall Street’s masters of the universe, of fraud. Investigations into Goldman are being launched in Britain, Germany and other [...]
Overcoming the Economic Recession with Green Policies: An Opportunity we cannot afford to miss!
There is no need to choose between environmental protection, economic development and social justice. A socially just and environmentally sustainable future where markets serve the people and economic growth respects the planet is possible. I hope that the Conference of the parties in Copenhagen will lead the world forward along the path to a true [...]
Six Things that didn’t cause the Crisis – But really ought to have
Experts, soothsayers and pundits have been falling over themselves to list the factors that combined to produce the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. (My ha’penny’s worth is here). A partial consensus has emerged on some issues (excessive deregulation of the financial sector, current account imbalances) while debate continues to rage on others (such [...]
Ethics, Capitalism and the Managerial Aristocracy
We are all capitalists, in the sense that we may point to one thing or another and call it ‘mine’. The Marxist notion that ‘private property is theft’ is all but dead outside of the most extreme and chronically naive positions. It is often said that communitarian or communist ideology which espoused the principle of [...]
