Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World

by Stephen Green

Overview

Can one be both an ethical person and an effective businessperson? Stephen Green, an ordained priest and the chairman of HSBC, thinks so. In Good Value, Green retraces the history of the global economy and its financial systems, and shows that while the marketplace has delivered huge advantages to humanity, it has also abandoned over a billion people to extreme poverty, encouraged overconsumption and debt, and ravaged the environment.

How do we reconcile the demands of capitalism with both the common good and our own spiritual and psychological needs as individuals? To answer that, and some of the most vexing questions of our age, Green takes us on a lively and erudite journey through history, looking for lessons in the work of economists and philosophers, businessmen and poets, theologians and novelists, playwrights and political scientists. An essential business book by a man who is uniquely qualified to write it, Good Value is a timely and persuasive analysis of the most pressing financial and moral questions we face.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802145253
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/08/2011
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.36(w) x 8.16(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Stephen Green is Chairman of HSBC, where he was CEO from 2003 – 2006. He is also Chairman of the British Banker’s Association, Chair of the Prime Minister’s Business Council for Britain, and an ordained priest of the Church of England. He is married with two daughters.

Table of Contents

With Special Thanks to... ix

Exploration xi

1 In My Beginning Is My End 1

2 The World's Mine Oyster 22

3 The Global Bazaar 53

4 The Home Stretch to a New Jerusalem? 90

5 From Tulips to Subprime to... 119

6 Why Should I Do Anything for Posterity? 149

7 Faust and the Rich Young Man 180

8 In My End Is My Beginning 205

Acknowledgments 231

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Stephen Green is in a universe of one: the only chairman of a major international bank who is also an ordained minister of the Church of England. . . . At a time when bankers are being pilloried for bringing about a global economic meltdown, this is an unusual and thoughtful disquisition on how to conduct oneself in a world of high finance and ambition, in, as he puts it, the global bazaar.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Engaging and convincing . . . The shade of Marcus Aurelius permeates these meditations on money . . . Green is deeply acquainted with poetry, philosophy, history, and economic theory past and present.” —The Times (London)

“Eloquent . . . Inspiring . . . Green strides fluently between T. S. Eliot and Karl Marx, Goethe and Camus, Adam Smith and the Prophet Isaiah. . . . The journey he takes us on offers stimulating intellectual scenery at every turn.” —The Independent

“A striking personal insight into money and morality by someone on the inside. Green asks how and why we create wealth and explores its future place within an increasingly globalized world.” —Financial Times

“An intensely intimate, refreshing, and at times searing read . . . Should be required reading in business schools and boardrooms where flip charts and Powerpoint presentations dominate.” —Evening Standard

“Exciting and original . . . Green reflects on the astonishing impact of globalization on human history and consciousness before going on to suggest ideas for how the financial and wider business system can be fixed or replaced.” —The Guardian

Editorial Reviews

Beginning with the recent financial crisis, Green, the former CEO of HSBC and an ordained Anglican priest, launches into a deeply reflective examination of globalization, urbanization, and the market economy. Drawing on a diverse range of sources—from the Koran to The Wealth of Nations, T.S. Eliot to Thomas Friedman—and placing market vicissitudes into a broad historical context, he contends that globalization has passed the point of no return and that, despite its flaws and failings, the market economy is the best economic arrangement available. Green pivots to consider the importance of corporate and personal responsibility in an increasingly interdependent world. Though the author does describe the Christian foundations for his own metaphysical and ethical views, he spends more time discussing Goethe’s Faust than any Gospel. Green never calls for any particular reform; rather he makes an inspiring and erudite case for individuals to make moral sense of their lives and strive to make a better world despite the inherent imperfections in human nature and the globalized marketplace. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

“Stephen Green is in a universe of one: the only chairman of a major international bank who is also an ordained minister of the Church of England. . . . At a time when bankers are being pilloried for bringing about a global economic meltdown, this is an unusual and thoughtful disquisition on how to conduct oneself in a world of high finance and ambition, in, as he puts it, the global bazaar.” —The Wall Street Journal


“Engaging and convincing . . . The shade of Marcus Aurelius permeates these meditations on money . . . Green is deeply acquainted with poetry, philosophy, history, and economic theory past and present.” —The Times (London)


“Eloquent . . . Inspiring . . . Green strides fluently between T. S. Eliot and Karl Marx, Goethe and Camus, Adam Smith and the Prophet Isaiah. . . . The journey he takes us on offers stimulating intellectual scenery at every turn.” —The Independent


“A striking personal insight into money and morality by someone on the inside. Green asks how and why we create wealth and explores its future place within an increasingly globalized world.” —Financial Times


“An intensely intimate, refreshing, and at times searing read . . . Should be required reading in business schools and boardrooms where flip charts and Powerpoint presentations dominate.” —Evening Standard


“Exciting and original . . . Green reflects on the astonishing impact of globalization on human history and consciousness before going on to suggest ideas for how the financial and wider business system can be fixed or replaced.” —The Guardian

From the Publisher