The Role of Greed in the Ongoing Global Financial Crisis

Abstract

The author posits that greed and insensitivity to the needs of others are corrosive values that have engendered the global economic crisis. Examples are cited to support the thesis that it is primarily an ethics crisis that has resulted in the distortion of the US economy, such that the middle class is sliding into poverty while the wealthiest 1 per cent is ever more powerful and wealthy. The irony of the predatory capitalism (as distinct from stakeholderbased capitalism) being practised is that it is ultimately self-destructive to the practitioners. The unsustainability of the present system is discussed along with solutions, including stakeholder management, corporate and personal altruism and spiritual awakening.