Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis
Why Incompetence Is Worse than Greed

This book examines the decision-making of key stakeholders in the financial services industry through the lens of recent work on epistemic virtues.

Boudewijn de Bruin (Author)

9781107028913, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 February 2015

244 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.49 kg

'Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis takes a distinctive, refreshing and practical approach to the financial disaster of 2008 and its legacy. Boudewijn de Bruin concentrates not on macroeconomic policy, but on remediable failings in financial institutions. He argues convincingly that the crash reflected not only dishonesty and greed, but widespread institutional and individual incompetence, and shows why trustworthy financial services need to meet rigorous epistemic as well as ethical standards.' Baroness Onora O'Neill, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

In this topical book, Boudewijn de Bruin examines the ethical 'blind spots' that lay at the heart of the global financial crisis. He argues that the most important moral problem in finance is not the 'greed is good' culture, but rather the epistemic shortcomings of bankers, clients, rating agencies and regulators. Drawing on insights from economics, psychology and philosophy, de Bruin develops a novel theory of epistemic virtue and applies it to racist and sexist lending practices, subprime mortgages, CEO hubris, the Madoff scandal, professionalism in accountancy and regulatory outsourcing of epistemic responsibility. With its multidisciplinary reach, Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis will appeal to scholars working in philosophy, business ethics, economics, psychology and the sociology of finance. The many concrete examples and case studies mean that this book will also prove useful to policy-makers and regulators.

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Financial ethics: virtues in the market
2. Epistemic ethics: virtues of the mind
3. Internalizing virtues: the clients
4. Case study I: primes and subprimes
5. Incorporating virtue: the banks
6. Case study II: nerds and quants
7. Communicating virtues: the raters
8. Case study III: scores and accounts
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Business ethics & social responsibility [KJG], Finance [KFF], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]