=
The
Amorality of the Financial Market and the
Calvinist Church-Room =
![](3D"disseng-filer/image002.jpg")
<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>
|
|
en français |
The
core element of this Doctor’s thesis is an understanding of the mentality of=
financial
markets. To this aim, I have made interviews in Swedish merchant banks and
mutual funds. I try to situate the financial market of <=
st1:City> The purpose of my research is to study the way in
which the ethics of a society forms its economy. I take an interest in the
ethical impact on society from financial markets. I study the increasing
importance of financial markets, which is partly caused by changing ethic=
s in
society, in a direction that might be called libertarian. De-regulation of the financial industry =
is a
symptom of this changed attitude, and gives room for the increased
importance. As relevant pieces of ethic in society I find the
degree of secularisation and materialism, the attitude towards business
activities in general and degree of risk-aversion among the public. The
attitudes of people in general towards financial markets, as well as the
ethics of actors in financial markets might be searched for. National and
cultural differences are of major relevance. Questions posed will be such=
as,
if the acceptance of financial markets is higher in Protestant countries =
than
in Catholic counterparts. What is explained simply by differing stages of
economic development and what can be traced to socio-ethical differences?=
Which responsibility does an investor in financi=
al
markets have for the common good? What was once regarded as betting - e.g.
Financial derivatives - has received increased social acceptability. A
prominent example of this is the vast deregulation of financial markets
taking place in the 1980s around the Capitalist world. After the laiss=
ez-faire
1980s, the present decade is characterised by a re-integration of the fin=
ancial
system into community. Few are, however, those who argue for prohibition =
of
derivative instruments. Regulation is the compromising alternative.
Supporters of regulation aspire making the financial system a better serv=
ant
to social utility than what is presently the case. Arguments against spec=
ulation
and more generally against charging interest have historically been state=
d in
a religious context, as immoral. The continuing =
secularisation of Investment opportunities in "real"
activities have decreased. The financial market is a key business in =
post-industrial society. Derivative instruments
are abstracted from the production of physical goods. Is this a decadence
symptom in capitalist economies, in what before the fall of the Soviet bl=
ock
was called a "later stage of capitalism"? Populärversion av d=
oktorsavhandlingen:=
|
|
|
|
=
|
|
=
|
=
|
=
|