Thursday, April 16, 2009

Values are back...

...and don’t just take my word for it.

Stephen Haddrill of the ABI highlighted this to investors.

An appeal to values is heard in the wider debates about the crisis and the way forward. Prime Ministers Brown and Rudd debated, in the words of the former, ‘a world of shared global rules founded on shared global values’ on the eve of the London Summit.

The disjuncture caused by the current crisis has forced many to reflect critically on the values which underpin the system and form the basis of trust.

Values clearly matter – our judgements and decisions on how to act and live are based on them. Our economic and social systems require them as a foundation stone for building trust and confidence.

These themes are discussed in an excellent piece by Amartya Sen, ‘Capitalism Beyond the Crisis’ in which he challenges the proponents of a ‘New Capitalism’ such as Sarkozy and demands a new understanding of older ideas. He invokes the work of Adam Smith to explain how the crisis is partly generated by an overestimation of the wisdom of market processes and exacerbated by anxiety and lack of trust (see also ‘Adam Smith’s market never stood alone’).

I am hopeful that we can, in Sen’s words, ‘go beyond short-term solutions and contribute to producing a more decent economic world’ with greater regard given to the long term social and environmental impacts of our action.

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