Thesis
by Peter Norberg
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The Amorality of Financial Markets and the 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 Stockholm in its
social context. Account is taken of impulses both from foreign markets to
high finance of Stockholm, and of influence from society to financial
markets. The Max Weber thesis of ascetic Protestantism as a fundament for the
modern spirit of capitalism is of main importance in this investigation. In
a secularised version, the puritan ethic has given rise to a
mentality that still guides the evolution of capitalism. Success in financial
markets is most easily achieved by holding on to the classical Protestant
Ethic. 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 ethics 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 financial
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 laissez-faire
1980s, the present decade is characterised by a re-integration of the
financial 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 servant to social utility than what is presently the case. Arguments
against speculation and more generally against charging interest have
historically been stated 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 block was
called a "later stage of capitalism"? |
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