Ethics, Finance, Crisis

My word, is this brilliant! Excerpts from a new book by Adam Arvidsson & Nicolai Peitersen, The Ethical Economy. They are publishing it online and making it it into a Wiki as well, so it can be group edited.

The most important assets in today's financial crack - mortgage-backed securities, credit card debt and many intangibles, like brand values are essentially securitizations of what we could call 'life conduct'. The value of a mortgage or of  credit card debt depends on the life conduct of the borrower. The value of a brand depends on the life conduct of consumers (this is actually what is measured in brand valuation schemes) and of the ethical conduct of the company that owns the brand; the value of a real estate market depends on the life conduct of  the inhabitants of a neighborhood or a city- after all this is what 'creative city' policies are all about. And to a large extent the productivity of a knowledge intensive company is about the life-conduct of its employees. So in many ways current financial markets build on the direct securitization of life-conduct, of ethically coherent forms of life.

Securitization of life conduct, yes, as in the securitization of the public square by venture entrepreneurs and forprofit social media; the securitization of wisdom/folly by think tanks;  the securitization of intellectual dishonesty, spectacle, and disinformation by newscasters; the securitization of surveillance by government and business;  the securitization of prisons, violence, and war. We have securitized and bankrupted an entire way of life. At least we have bubble-bailouts.  An old progressive adage is that we must be the change we seek in the world; in community with others, we can and must exemplify an ethical way of life that defies securitization, or keeps it in its place, subordinate to our humanity.