Can Finance Save the World?

CHAPTER 8

Back to Basics

The financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the deep global economic recession that followed have made finance seem like the enemy to many citizens in the world. What should have brought people riches led them into poverty and darkened their prospects, with a seemingly small minority benefiting from everyone else’s malaise. But to condemn finance outright is to deprive humanity of an essential tool: although it is assuredly a poor master, finance can also be a great servant. Finance, rebooted, can help save the world. It has a colossal amount of stored energy waiting to be released and a prodigious potential to serve the common good once again. The trick is to reeducate, to lead by example, to learn to control the chain reaction, ...