Ethical aspects of the global financial crisis : the thinking of Stephen Green and Catherine Cowley

Abstract

The past three decades witnessed a trend towards successive deregulation, especially in the Anglo-Saxon financial services sector. As a result, speculation and higher levels of risk-taking became the norm for many banks. The lack of oversight from governments, often acting within an under-regulated framework, combined with a crave for short-termprofits and with the false pretext that markets can regulate themselves, contributed to the unprecedented market meltdown of 2008. Consequently we started to witness more government intervention, especially in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Profits had been privatized whilst losses were being socialized. The need for better government has never been so apparent. The state and the market are being valued higher than society and the common good. Intelligent and limited government intervention, enshrined in virtue ethics, can act as "shock absorbers" for entire societies. There is a need to mitigate the greed of unbridled capitalism and to dampen down the socio-political turmoil ushered in by the financial crisis. Catherine Cowley and Stephen Green are not the only believers that, especially in the world of finance, value needs values.