Posts Tagged ‘ethics

This is the text of my recent book review in the Financial Times Astute observers of capitalism have long recognised there is a tension at its heart. Although the market economy is based on the pursuit of self-interest, its legitimacy depends on benefiting the wider society. These two contrasting elements were understood as far back […]

Today’s Financial Times includes two articles by me in its FT Wealth section. My profile of Bill Browder, an anti-Kremlin campaigner, is pasted below and I will upload my latest book review over the weekend. Bill Browder has a stark warning for western investors eyeing opportunities in Russia. “They are not only taking a financial […]

This Perspective column was first published in today’s edition of Fund Strategy. It is hard to imagine many things more annoying than someone who thinks their ideas are deep and original when in reality they are banal and derivative. Purveyors of behavioural economics generally fit the bill. Although behavioural economics has several high profile exponents, […]

My latest spiked review is of Michael Sandel’s book on the moral limits of markets. Contemporary views on the proper relationship between the market economy and the state can be divided into two broad types. Critics typically denounce rampant consumerism for fostering greed, corrupting people’s values, corroding communities and widening inequality. In contrast, supporters of […]

This Perspective column was first published in today’s edition of Fund Strategy. Many people’s reaction to discovering the existence of a secondary market in life insurance is likely to resemble finding a dead cat on the pavement: “yuk”. Somehow it seems to such critics undignified for an investor to buy a life insurance policy from […]

This is the text of my recent spiked review. Strip out the noise of everyday bickering and it is possible to identify the core ideals that make up the West’s dominant political outlook. They are easily spelt out, even if the perspective itself is difficult to label. In principle, they include basic rights and duties, […]

My latest spiked review argues that the idea of fairness is antithetical to freedom, prosperity and true equality. You can read it here and I will post the text at a later date.

This is my latest column for Fund Strategy It was so strange I had to pinch myself to check if I was having a bizarre nightmare. There was Michael Sandel, philosopher and celebrity academic, denouncing traded life policies – or what he called “death bonds” – on a BBC television programme. To make the package […]

Someone has correctly pointed out that the money from the Visa affinity card mentioned in the last post goes to the Nation magazine rather than Occupy Wall Street (OWS) itself. It supports OWS by promoting its Move Your Money scheme. However, I think the broader point still stands. Supporting smaller businesses against larger ones is […]

This blog post was first published on Fundweb today. [Also note correction at end] I get loads of dodgy emails ostensibly offering me the chance to enlarge various body parts and buy performance enhancing drugs but this one was genuine: an invitation to apply for an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Visa card. This is not […]