Portland Public Library

Necessary evil, how to fix finance by saving human rights, David Kinley

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-260) and index

index present

non fiction

Necessary evil

bibliography

982092942

David Kinley

how to fix finance by saving human rights

"Finance is the evil we cannot live without. It governs almost every aspect of our lives and has the power to liberate as well as enslave. With the world's total financial assets -- valued at a staggering $300 trillion -- being four times larger than the combined output of all the world's economies, there is, apparently, plenty to go around. Yet, while proponents of finance-driven capitalism point to the trickle-down effect as its contribution to wealth redistribution, there are still nearly a billion peole across the globe existing on less than $2 a day; 14 percent of Americans are living below the official poverty line; and disparities in wealth equality everywhere have reached unprecedented levels. Evidently a trickle is not enough. How can this be when so much wealth abounds, and when finance is supposedly chastened and reformed after its latest global crisis? How, especially, can it be in an age when human rights are more loudly proclaimed than ever before? Can the financial sector be made to shoulder more of the burden of spreading wealth, reducing poverty, and protecting rights? And if so, what role can human rights play in making it happen? In answering these questions, David Kinley draws on a vast array of material from bankers, economists, lawyers, and politicians, as well as human rights activists, philosphers, historians, and anthropologists, alongside his own experiences working the the field. Necessary Evil shows how finance can shed its conceit, return to its role as the economy's servant not its master, and regain the public trust and credibility it has so spectacularly lost over the past decade -- all by helping human rights, not harming them"--Publisher's description

Taming the money monster -- The argument -- The journey -- The finance/human rights relationship -- Stages in the relationship -- Strange Bedfellows. Hubris -- Finance as a utility -- Financial ownership -- Financial weapons of mass destruction -- Transformative powers -- Interdependency -- The poverty prism -- The public problem of private poverty -- Incentives and exceptionalism -- Anthropology on Wall Street -- The mission -- Living Together. Ends and means -- Money as an instrument -- A common liberal heritage -- Human rights globalization -- Paying for rights -- Finding rights -- Human rights and the global economy -- Rights politics -- Complicated confederacy -- Speaking different languages -- Missed opportunities -- Human needs and human rights -- Rights differences -- Rights impacts -- Flirting with Risk. The attraction -- From boring banking to fantasy finance -- The majesty and tragedy of leverage -- Human rights risks -- Rich-world austerity -- Poor-world impacts -- Faith -- Faith no more -- Greed -- Greed in finance -- When risk goes bad -- Risky lessons -- Friends with benefits -- Private Matters. What money can buy -- The generation and investment of wealth -- Income -- Remittances and credit -- Rent-seeking -- Capital -- Capital and tyranny -- Capital gains -- Responsible capital -- The business of impact -- Equity and inequality -- Rewarding capital -- Consequences of unequal wealth -- Wealth and giving -- The givers -- The receivers -- Mixed motivations -- How much is enough? -- The private/public connection -- Public Affairs. Duty -- The voice of human rights -- Public funding of human rights -- Taxation, representation, and rights -- The consequences of levying tax : a brief history -- Of ghosts and icebergs : the consequences of lost tax -- Tax as a force for good -- Aid and debt -- Development and human rights : more awkward than intimate -- Partnering with the private sector -- Getting the mix right -- Does "new" aid work? -- Cheating. Consequences -- Deceit and subversion -- Illicit finance -- Tax evasion -- Tax free -- Tax sport -- Misappropriation -- Questions of impunity -- Regulatory capture -- Legal smoke screens -- Denial in finance -- Denial in human rights -- Wishful thinking -- Measuring progress -- Repair -- Counseling and Reconciliation. What sort of counsel? -- The long shadow of financial exceptionalism -- Attitudes and culture -- Empathy -- Responsibilities -- Esteem -- Sleaze -- Capacity for change -- Regulatory intervention and risk -- Identification of risk -- Allocation of risk -- Risk and the rule of law -- Alternatives -- Reaching across the divide -- Till death us do part

How to fix finance by saving human rights