BEYOND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: TOWARDS A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE FOR ACTION: A NEW PUBLICATION FROM THE CARITAS IN VERITATE FOUNDATION
The financial crisis and its many developments have brought to the
forefront a sea change most people were unaware of in 2008. The
financial economy had from the mid-1980s overtaken the real economy and
expanded so much to become pervasive. All kinds of goods and commodities
are transformed into financial assets or securities and sold on global
exchanges. Especially debts—consumer credit, mortgages, credit cards,
etc.—were appealing. Thus, over the last three decades financial
assets became increasingly and silently part of our everyday life. So
much so, that a total collapse of financial markets would actually be
akin to a reboot of our way of life and of most of our institutions.
This working paper addresses this change and gives a well-developed and
informed understanding of how we came to this. But most of it is
dedicated to another point: which path is open today out of the crisis?
What lies beyond the crisis? The return to 'business as usual'? Have we
learned nothing? Financial markets are not evil per se. They do have a social function, but must work for the Common Good if they want to earn to it. What does this concretely mean? Drawing upon Catholic Social Teaching, Paul
Dembinski and Simona Beretta reassert forgotten truth and explore new
and challenging perspectives.
The CARITAS IN VERITATE FOUNDATION is grounded in Christian values and
the social teaching of the Catholic Church. The latter is predicated
upon the ethical foundation of natural law and the complementarity of
FAITH and REASON. Drawing upon collaboration with international experts,
the foundation promotes and disseminates the contributions of Christian
social teaching in the international arena.
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