Tag: Ethics

It is true that professional reputations are not what they once were, that self-regulation of standards of competence has often been inadequate, that professions’ ethical standards have declined generally. But it is also striking that such decline is most noticeable in the areas of law and accountancy closest to financial services.

Dishonesty of speech quickly leads to dishonesty in behaviour because the language we use governs all we do.

Few things corrode business efficiency and effective markets more insidiously than the discovery that it is more profitable to win the favour of politicians than to win the approval of customers.

There are only a few basic kinds of deception and self-deception in finance. John illustrates some of the key mechanisms.

We make the poor better off not by holding back technical and economic progress, but by accelerating it.

The measure of the productivity of an activity is the public and private benefit from a good or service that results from that activity.

Warren Buffett's emergence as the world's richest man illustrates the power of compound interest. Warren neither pays nor makes management charges. The effect is larger than you would believe possible.

European companies are increasingly imitating US ones in the cult and remuneration of chief executives. Political organisation may evolve similarly as party membership declines and ideology fades.

The balance between present and future will be determined not by moral philosophy or economic models but by the decisions of ordinary savers, investors and voters.

If very rich people are to pay much lower tax rates than the doctors who care for them or the teachers who made their careers possible, there needs to be a compelling demonstration of widespread economic benefits.