Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.

Gandhi


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An occasional blog on societal leadership and other issues of interest to the LeadWell Foundation / LeadWell Initiative team

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Ethics and economics

As we continue to ride a wave of market turbulence that continues to shake investor confidence and create troubling spectres of economic defaults in over-stretched economies, a recent book on the ethics of economics leaves us seriously considering whether there should, in fact, be a specific code of ethics for economists.

We're all familar with the economist as yet another "talking head" in the news, and many of us may tend to tune out what's being said on a day-to-day basis. But in the world of global markets, the words of some economists — or even the lack of them — can greatly influence the course of events.

As the 2008 meltdown testified, there are cases where professional economists might have been able to mitigate the damage that continues to ripple through the system by being required to disclose or comment on issues that they knew could be dangerous and risky. Instead, there are many instances where economists clearly contributed to aspects of the crisis, with some actions highly unethical (in the broadest possible sense) at best.

See this article from Newswise on a recent book about the issue, and what benefits might come with having a code of ethics for professional economists...

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/579364/?sc=dwhn

From a societal leadership perspective, the answer to the question clearly is YES!! Although we'd like to hope that professionals like economists would have sufficient ethical sense to begin with, the actions of some in the field point to the need to have a better framework in place to safeguard the public interest, particularly given the forward-looking influence that economists can wittingly or unwittingly exert on public policy and collective private actions.

Last modified on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 14:46

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