Realizing Private Capital’s Public Benefits
Greece’s left-wing leader, Alexis Tsipras, has a point in confronting “global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds.” As Europe staggers under the blows of investors intent on profiting from a catastrophe largely of their own making, it is time to reflect on global capital markets' public purpose.
GENEVA – Greece’s youthful left-wing leader, Alexis Tsipras, has a point – certainly polemical and undoubtedly over-simplified – in declaring that the time has come to confront “global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds.” With Europe staggering under the blows of investors intent on profiting from a catastrophe largely of their own making, it is time to reflect on the public purpose of global capital markets. As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has put it: “Finance is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is supposed to serve the interests of the rest of society, not the other way around.”
GENEVA – Greece’s youthful left-wing leader, Alexis Tsipras, has a point – certainly polemical and undoubtedly over-simplified – in declaring that the time has come to confront “global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds.” With Europe staggering under the blows of investors intent on profiting from a catastrophe largely of their own making, it is time to reflect on the public purpose of global capital markets. As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has put it: “Finance is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is supposed to serve the interests of the rest of society, not the other way around.”