Project for Philosophical Evaluations of the Economy |
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Moral Backbone and AIG
Bullet Points on the difficulty of capitalistic reality, drafted and published on Sept. 19, 2008
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Bullet Points on the difficulty of capitalistic reality, drafted and published on Sept. 19, 2008
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- The current financial crisis brings to the fore the enormous moral challenges that a competitive globalized
society holds for the individual market participant and business leaders in particular.
- Noah denkt™ feels that recent events in the financial markets vindicate its theory according to which it
takes an almost inhuman heroism to be able to withstand the seemingly plausible temptations that the
market holds for business leaders. After all, it is no coincidence that so many once applauded bank CEOs
decided to enter the then hyper-lucrative credit default swaps market. For too much were they under
pressure to keep their company’s share price high, that they could now have easily forgone the option, to
benefit from such a seemingly uncontested income generator.
- Having acknowledged though the tremendous challenges that a super-competitive society holds for man, it
is precisely the unreasonable remuneration packages that bank CEOs tend to get which would require
them to develop this near-inhuman leadership backbone, which has been referred to above.
- To be able though, to develop the aforementioned near-inhuman leadership backbone, it is equally
indispensable that there should be a social, cultural and political acknowledgement of the fact that the
required moral steadfastness in deed has a near-inhuman quality to it. After all, it is only by recognizing a
reality that you can truly embrace it. And so it is only by formulating your goals that you can truly aspire to
achieve them.
- In this respect Noah denkt™ would like to take issue with Sen Jim Bunning’s categoric rejection of the
recent government interventions in the financial markets (Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac) and in
particular with his anti-bail-out position in the AIG-case. After all, it is so much easier to formulate an
opinion in this case if you can do so as a relative bystander. If you are the person in the hot seat however (i.
e. Treasury Secretary or FED chief) you can be sure that substantial criticism will be levelled at you no
matter which direction your decision should take. And so it needs to be acknowledged that it is one thing
developing an opinion about a case and that it is quite another to actually have to bear the responsibility
for the consequences that your decisions might entail.
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