Unethical financial practices

With money rushing around the world in second, there is a danger that the lowest common denominator will prevail. Excessive greed, aggression, acquisitiveness and a lack of concern for those affected seems to be characteristics increasingly in evidence in financial dealings. If welfare benefits had created dependency in one sector of society, so a structure which enshrines naked avarice would produce in another a spirit of self-centred individualism, which is ultimately anarchic and destructive of true community. At a time when the Economist has described investors as mere "punters", the Church must voice its concern about practices and structures which discourage responsible deployment of people's capital. Should users of the market be accorded the rights of ownership if they are unwilling to accept its responsibilities. An absentee shareholder is no better than an absentee landlord.