CEME was pleased to host an event on “Ethics and Economics” which took place on Wednesday 12th May 2021.
The full audio recording of the event can be found here.
Business and markets exist to serve society and not the other way round. Has our economic system become detached from its values and ethical moorings? Have we moved from Adam’s Smith’s concept of self-interest as bound up in the fortunes of others to a merely transactional system driven by selfishness? The discussion will consider how we can bring our moral and value judgements to the market for the good of society.
Our two distinguished speakers were:
Barbara Ridpath chairs the Ethical Investment Advisory Group of the Church of England and is a non-executive director of Paragon Banking Group and ORX. She previously worked with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Standard & Poor’s and JP Morgan. She was also Director of St Paul’s Institute at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Edward Hadas is a Research Fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford. He previously worked in finance and in financial journalism, including writing weekly column on financial and economic topics, with an ethical perspective, for Reuters Breakingviews. His book, Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking Through Catholic Social Teaching, was published by Catholic University Press in 2020. A new book, Money, Finance, Reality, Morality is searching for a publisher.