A brief intellectual history of the lesser depression

Edward Hadas ()
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Edward Hadas: Thomson Reuters Breakingviews and Maryvale Institute (Birmingham, UK)

Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, 2012, vol. 120, issue 3, 313-324

Abstract: Globally, the real economy of goods and services functions better than ever in human history, but the financial and monetary system remains subject to crippling crises, including a severe one in 2008. This deviation can be explained by ‘‘the power of bad ideas’’, in particular policy-makers’ narrow focus on quantitative variables and their distrust of moral arguments. The combination leaves regulators and practitioners unable to recognise the role of greed and pride in finance. A moral approach could help reduce the financial system’s vulnerability. The description of economic activity in Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate provides a good starting point. He offers a fundamentally non-monetary view of three economic arrangements: giving through exchange (commerce), giving through duty (taxes), and ‘‘gratuitousness and communion’’ (economic self-giving without concern for a return). The integration of the last into economic analysis would be particularly helpful.

Keywords: Catholic Social Teaching; Economic Anthropology; Ethics; Finance; Financial Crises (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 A13 G02 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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