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Ethical Reflections on the Financial Crisis 2007/2008

Making Use of Smith, Musgrave and Rajan

  • Book
  • © 2013

Overview

Authors:
  1. Wilfried Ver Eecke

    1. Georgetown University, Washington, USA

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  • Provides ethical arguments for the necessary role of the government for a well-functioning economy
  • Generalizes the applicability of Musgrave’s concept of merit goods by connecting this concept to the neo-liberal economic philosophy
  • Provides a Kantian argument to connect individual freedom with government regulation, oversight and intervention?
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Economics (BRIEFSECONOMICS)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Wilfried Ver Eecke
    Pages 1-4

  3. Adam Smith and the Free Market

    • Wilfried Ver Eecke
    Pages 5-21

  4. The Concepts of Private, Public and Merit Goods

    • Wilfried Ver Eecke
    Pages 23-44

  5. Business Ethics and Eleven Categories of Merit Goods

    • Wilfried Ver Eecke
    Pages 45-82

  6. The Ethical and Socio-Political Dimensions of the Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 and the Subsequent Recession

    • Wilfried Ver Eecke
    Pages 83-100

  7. Conclusion

    • Wilfried Ver Eecke
    Pages 101-102
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Keywords

About this book

In this book the author reflects on the philosophical and ethical bases of the financial crisis 2007-08 and the subsequent recession. He finds in Adam Smith solid arguments for the new free market economy, capitalism, but also arguments for a  role for the government in the case of public goods (roads) and of merit goods (education, control of banking). Where the provision of public goods requires that the government respect consumer sovereignty there the provision of merit goods legitimizes the violation of that principle. By making use of the history of economic thought (e.g., the neo-liberal tradition) the author demonstrates that Musgrave’s idea of merit goods can be expanded to eleven domains in which the government has an important function. He legitimizes that move by using the Kantian argument that we must accept the possibility conditions for what we want. The author demonstrates that Rajan, Reich and Reinhart & Rogoff make use of seven of his eleven categories of merit goods in order to explain the financial crisis 2007-08 and the subsequent recession. The author thereby provides a philosophical and ethical analysis of the government's failures at the basis of the financial crisis. ​

Authors and Affiliations

  • Georgetown University, Washington, USA

    Wilfried Ver Eecke

About the author

Wilfried Ver Eecke is Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, Washington, DC since 1967. He specializes in Hegel, philosophy of psychoanalysis and philosophy of economics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1966, did doctoral and post-doctoral work in Paris, Freiburg/i Br (Germany), Harvard and Bonn/Cologne (Germany). He studied economics at Georgetown University. He published, edited or translated seven books. He wrote more than one hundred articles. His publications have appeared in eleven languages.

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