Gurcharan Das (Official Website)

Dharma fails on Wall Street

‘Oh, so you are one of them!’ is how someone greeted my nephew, who is embarrassed to tell people that he is an investment banker. ‘I’d rather say that I run a brothel,’ he says. ‘At least, that’s a business people understand.’ Bankers, having brought the world economy to its knees, have become pariahs overnight and a target of people’s rage. International Labour Organization warns that global unemployment could hit a staggering 50 million. A typical knee jerk reaction is call it ‘greed’ but that is not helpful. We have always known that if envy is a sin of socialism, greed is a failing of capitalism. Much has been written of this crisis but not enough about its moral quality. Do free markets inherently corrode character? Continue reading…