The documentary “Let’s Make Money” directed by Erwin Wagenhofer was instantaneously published before the global financial crisis 2008. Besides presenting the distances that money covers, it identifies its fundamental deployment as well as the minority of mighty people who govern it. In general, the documentary aims at demonstrating the multiple aspects and effects of the contemporary financial system, which practically affect the entire global population.
Thereby, the director criticizes the intrinsically egoistic and thoroughly unethical behaviour of multiple financial and political operators who generate revenues at the expense of millions of unintentionally involved citizens around the globe. Workers from developing countries continuously proliferate other’s money while remaining poor in person and being completely at the mercy of the capitalistic, Western society. The essay shall present arguments against and in favour of modern instruments of financing from an ethical perspective in order to examine the reasons and consequences of the excessive striving for additional welfare.In times of globalization, the interconnectedness of economic and political activities between developed and developing countries has been constantly increasing accompanied by a permanent generation of money through financial transactions. Simultaneously, the gap between the rich and the poor continuously amplified, which has created a globally dispersed divergent attitude towards financial transactions.
The documentary clarifies that financial markets generally consist of the non-physical trade of capital among persons, institutions and their espective relations, whereas the latter constitutes the fundament of associated drawbacks.In the contemporary financial system, shareholder value – i. e. the maximization of return on investment – seems to account for the ultimate benchmark.
Since financers operate in a network of multiple individuals, which thus forms an entire collective that is aiming at simultaneous objectives without adequate regulation, financial operators are insulated from external intervention, individuality, and accountability to a large extent, which might account for their unethical conduct in the execution of transactions.Hence, the indefeasibility in terms of financial activities detains financial operators from associating their activities with consciousness and morale regarding the effects on other human beings. Nevertheless, it is coward to say that one has no choice with regard to investments, since every kind of decision implicates a choice and thus an intrinsic judgement about right or wrong (Crane & Matten, 2010) although an analysis of the latter fact goes beyond the scope of the paper.Even though respective judgements differ among individuals, decision-makers recognize that they are opposed to an ethical dilemma, which they intentionally ignore because they are actually aware of the fact that ulterior action could distort their predominant financial objective.
Consequently, the entire normative quintessence such as social values and norms on which our global system is arranged on suffers among intentional ignorance, regardless of the different understandings of what primarily constitutes morality or ethics.At least the term and the associated intention of responsibility should designate a concept that is familiar to everyone. In fact, the industrialized economies designed modern instruments of financing because they were highly aware of the associated growth and profit potential, which are imperative to exploitation. Thus, the system primordially undermines ethical values and no one from those who are able to exert the required political and economic force scrutinizes its functionality, convenience, or accuracy as long as returns remain satisfactory.In the documentary, the main purpose of the director is to emphasize the drawbacks of contemporary financial transactions because they create an immense accumulation of welfare while ignoring the distress in other parts of the world. Although Africa is endowed with valuable resources of gold, which is constantly mined, the output is directly transferred to Swiss banks without compensating the African workers for their time and effort spent.
Thus, investment bankers withdraw other’s property in a highly impudent manner, which they would actually expect not to experience for themselves.Since they are intimately aware of their dominating position in the global arena, it is fair to assume that financial innovations do not constitute the genuine problem, but the lack of morale of their operators. Accordingly, it can be concluded that developing countries – or emerging markets in Western terms – do exclusively represent a means to an end instead of being an integrated part of an equilibrated process of globalization. To this end, financial operator’s ignorance ought to change into conscious conduct accompanied by a relieved profit seeking behaviour.In contrast to the minority of people who “let their money work for them” (Let’s Make Money, 2008), a majority of people from developing countries is exposed to the significant negative effects of those value-generating financial instruments. Hereby, the documentary traces the reproduction of money and finally distorts any illusion that money is able to work in a self-contained manner.
In fact, human beings steer production and associated accumulation of money. However, the intrinsic function of these human beings differs in terms of contract awarding and execution, i. . people from developed and developing economies.
And so as the functions differ, so do the ethical attitudes, at least from a contemporary perspective. Those who feature welfare in their immediate environment refuse any decline of their proper fortune, which could increase others though. Extremely prosperous financial managers paradoxically exploit millions of human beings in underdeveloped countries in order to proliferate their invested money while those who are essential to the process are not appropriately compensated.The privatization of earnings and socialization of losses creates enormous conflicts in the world and even questions the collective character of the individual.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the process of global deregulation in the financial sector should rather be denominated merciless exploitation whereby economic rationality turns into irrational and greedy behaviour. “It is best to buy as soon as the blood is adhering to the streets” (Dr. Mark Mobius, Let’s Make Money, 2008) most effectively identifies the implicated intention of financial operators.Therefore, investment bankers realign their activities to the underdeveloped countries and hence design their financial instruments accordingly because they are actually aware of the local grievance and the associated opportunities. With reference to the above-mentioned statement, it can be presumed that the potential in the industrialized markets is saturated.
In spite of this fact, it becomes clear that participants of the financial system consciously draw benefits from the misery in the countries that they invest in. Such an inhuman behaviour raises the question where humanity is actually located in the contemporary world.Neither governments nor any other public power effectively intervenes through tightened regulations probably because they constitute a significant part of the problem as to be able to be an active part of the solution. Moreover, influential institutions such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also operate under US ownership and therefore eventually undermine humanity as well. Even though investment bankers and other financial operators argue that the industrialized countries offer support to the emerging markets in terms of employment, infrastructure, and economic development, reality rather demonstrates the opposite.The documentary depicts that global masterminds are not employed to solve pestering problems such as ecological devastation or poverty, but rather focus on the establishment of constructs that are menacing for the entire system.
In the industrialized countries, the prevailing underdevelopment of multiple developing countries has been known for several decades. Nevertheless, the former started to penetrate these markets not earlier than they identified opportunities to leverage their proper financial situation rather than to serve public utility.Again, those executives that potentially obtain the power to positively amplify the economic and political situation in developing countries do primarily conduct self-seeking projects that generate peculiar earnings in the short-run. Although these projects entail eventual spill over effects to the developing economies, financial operators designate individuals that are no longer conform to collective and solidary behaviour. It appears as if the principle of selfishness is dominant. The industrialized countries, especially the US, typify a hegemonic attitude, which distorts any sense of justice, consciousness and humanity.
Although corruption is usually referred to developing countries in public and the media, one could argue that the industrialized nations are even more corruptive themselves in case we define it as moral impurity. Even though Wagenhofer refuses to present the positive effects of modern instruments of financing in his documentary, they effectively exist. An essential part of the answer regarding the positive aspects of modern instruments of financing is the approach to consider the implications of a world without either money or financial transactions.A majority of the people claiming about the negative consequences of financial transactions do not appreciate the respective welfare effects and opportunities. It can be identified that money impacts people’s fundamental attitude and respective norms as well as values.
Although the effects are not registered consciously, people are steadily influenced by financial mediums and adapt their behaviour accordingly such that essential social norms, which have been naturally braced within human beings, continuously pass into market norms because the global dynamics afford it.Thus, the contemporary economy requires a general regulative framework that effectively steers financial transactions under consideration of social norms, especially equality. With regard to the utility and consequences of modern financial instruments, however, there appears to never be a black or white answer since it depends on the respective perspective with which such a controversial subject is discussed.Some critics argue that the documentary has been illustrated in a too simplified manner, which undermines the actual complexity of the financial system and has been systematically configured to negatively depict the financial world without sufficiently explaining it. Although it is difficult to deny the negative aspects of the contemporary financial system, modern instruments of financing enabled the global population to be arranged under the prevailing conditions.In recent years, the global society experienced a significant increase in rowth, efficiency, and welfare even though some countries and societal layer have been excluded and from an ethical point of view, it is difficult to identify direct positive effects.
However, the free movement of capital enables multiple opportunities for investments and the accumulation of money, and thus welfare. Modern instruments of financing enable investments in welfare-increasing fields of the economy in both developed and developing countries. These fields entail investments aiming at environmental protection, public transport, community development programs, or green technologies.However, it is not the economic conditions that remain critical, but rather the human beings that are involved. If appropriate incentives could be created to convince financial operators to more effectively deploy their funds, developing countries would no longer remain uncompensated. In fact, the complete integration of emerging economies in the contemporary global scene would eventually lead to an even more welfare-oriented economic approach.
Nevertheless, responsible operators must be forced to adopt a sustainable economic activity as long-term objective.In recent years though, the economy has been engraved by the rapidness and the short-term alignment of modern instruments of financing which has been accompanied by the irresponsible conduct of their users. Even though the financial crisis in 2008 proved the inconsistency of the global financial system - and the documentary has been directed even earlier - heretofore no one sufficiently scrutinizes the causes and consequences of the range of financial activities. Hence, one could argue that the lack of ascription in terms of direct accountability reasons the rather superficial approaches of sourcing from concerned persons.Hereby, guarantors additionally benefit from the non-transparent and intransient character of modern instruments of financing, which intrinsically assists corruptive behaviour.
In conclusion, the documentary broaches the negative causes and consequences of the financial system by contrasting the situations in developed and developing countries. Although Wagenhofer’s demonstration of the impacts of modern instruments of financing clarifies its drawbacks, it fails to add penetrative explanations. While the audience is confronted with insights into the financial system, a both ethical and critical analysis of the topics discussed is missing.Probably, it might have been the director’s intention to initiate public discussion via the documentary in order to evolve prospective approaches for society on corporate abuses and malpractice. One needs to admit that the complexity and non-transparency of the financial system is not effortless to illustrate. For me, the key problem of modern financial instruments is the fact that a collective of individual human beings governs them while being engraved by egoistic, ignorant, and short-term oriented conduct.
Highly intelligent people designed innovative financial instruments in order to increase welfare and growth, which is not condemnable in its essence. The critical fact is that these people add specific values and norms to the execution of these instruments that are not conform to globalisation and humanity and therefore distort the instruments’ intrinsic potential to serve the entire globe. The crisis could have been a valuable opportunity for a more sustainable system.
