Where did all the good guys go?

Where did all the good guys go?

Markets are feeling the full force of sub-prime mortgage crisis. We knew it would happen, but we didn't know how hard we were going to fall. It makes me wonder - where did all the decent, ethical business people in the financial services sector go to in the last decade? Did they get pushed off the back of a truck?

We will always have this problem - those who are concerned about the fellow inhabitants of this planet don't end up in finance companies or investment banks. They become humanitarians, public servants, counsellors, volunteer workers, politicians (yes, I know, not all politicians are there for altruistic reasons, but some must be!) Nobody runs a finance company because they want to make the world a better place. No-one becomes an investment banker because they care about the malaria epidemic or the plight of the working poor. They do it because they care about money and how it will make its way into their pockets. So why should this be a problem? Ideally, as well as making lots of money for themselves, they are providing a necessary service that moves money and capital efficiently to where it is needed, it assists in economic growth and we all benefit as a result. Because of the trickle down effect, even the poor and vulnerable are on the winning team.

Great in theory, but the pursuit of short term profit maximisation doesn't always align with economic growth and the needs of the people within that economy. The greed of an unethical few can drag the rest of us into the financial poo. It can cripple our economies. It can make the working poor, the unemployed poor. By shattering the economy it reduces the money available to deal with problems like malaria and AIDS. This is that other trickle down effect that they don't teach you about in Economics 101.