Business Ethics After the Global Financial Crisis

4How Competition Harmed Banking

The Need for a Pelican Gambit

Thomas Donaldson

Introduction

The global financial crisis (GFC) and the Great Recession seemed to strike ex nihilo. The forecasting was feeble, and the warnings were few. Years later we can slowly apprehend the long length of the recession’s shadow. Even as late as 2015, GDP levels were far below what pre-recession trends predicted. Lawrence Paul of John Hopkins University estimates that the aggregate GDP loss from the Great Recession for the Eurozone was 8.4% (Ball, 2014). Years of industrial growth were sacrificed.

In confronting the question of whether bad ethics played a significant role in igniting the GFC, we should move beyond the simple distinction between intentional and ...