Value(s)
Building a Better World for All
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
From the Prime Minister of Canada, a bold and urgent argument for the foundational change that is required if we are to build an economy and society based not on market values but on human values
Our world is full of fault lines—growing inequality in income and opportunity, systemic racism; health and economic crises from a global pandemic, mistrust of experts, the existential threat of climate change, deep threats to employment in a digital economy with robotics on the rise. These fundamental problems and others like them, argues Mark Carney, stem from a common crisis in values. Drawing on the turmoil of the past two decades, Carney shows how “market economies” have evolved into “market societies” where price determines the value of everything.
Focusing on four major crises—the Global Financial Crisis, the Global Health Crisis, Climate Change and the 4th Industrial Revolution—Carney proposes responses to each. His solutions are tangible action plans for leaders, companies and countries to transform the value of the market back into the value of humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Economist Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, debuts with a powerful exploration of how the rise of "market fundamentalism" has been detrimental to economic systems and democratic values. He analyzes concepts of value espoused by Aristotle, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx; explains how 19th-century neoclassicists including William Jevons "shifted the axis of value theory from objective factors of production to the subjective perceived value of goods to the consumer"; and sketches the history of money and the banking system. Contending that the three major crises of the 21st century—the 2008 recession, Covid-19, and climate change—have their roots in the dominance of monetary value over all other forms of value, Carney shows how the privileging of "technologically empowered" financial institutions over retail investors undermines the "social fabric on which finance depends," outlines how the financial sector can help achieve a net-zero-carbon economy, and offers a 10-point framework for transitioning economies from Covid-19 relief to a "mission-oriented capitalism" that is equitable and green. Though Carney's history lessons are somewhat extraneous to his comprehensive and creative policy recommendations, this is an exhaustive and persuasive look at how and why the global financial system needs to be reformed.
