Inequality is a good thing because… Goldman Sachs says so.
After all, inequality ultimately leads to prosperity and opportunity for all - at least according to Brian Griffiths at Goldman Sachs. Speaking at a panel discussion on the subject “What is the place of morality in the marketplace?”, he also said that bankers should donate chunks of their re-inflated earnings to charity to make up for any perceived callousness.
So there you have it, that’s why Goldman Sachs has allocated an amount that is “just shy of the all-time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007″ for bonus payments this year. Out of charity.
All this at an event held at one of London’s oldest cathedrals on 20 October 2009, which was also attended by Financial Services Authority chairman Adair Turner, who called for a global tax on financial transactions to “redistribute bank profits to the world’s poor and to causes like fighting climate change”.
Wish I could have been there. Sounds like this debate, organised by the St Paul’s Institute got stuck right into the murky depths of the financial world’s moral quagmire. At least, that is what this Bloomberg report suggests.
The way the Bloomberg story is written has something incendiary about it, almost as if the agency reporter relished the chance to play off these two opposing schools of financial faith and really get the crowd going.
When faith meets finance, expect fireworks - in this case they take the form of deluge of criticism and, hopefully, a renewed interest in the question of if and how to reform the international financial system.
Tags: Adair Turner, Bloomberg, Brian Griffiths, Financial Services Authority, Goldman Sachs, inequality, London, The St Paul's Institute
