Crisis in a Global Economy - Re-Planning the Journey
Sixteenth Plenary Session, 30 April-4 May 2010
Acta 16, eds J.T. Raga and M.A. Glendon
Vatican City, 2011
pp. 610
ISBN 978-88-86726-27-6
Preview
The Social Doctrine of Benedict XVI in ‘Caritas in Veritate’ (PDF)
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson
I. WHERE DO WE STAND? THE IMPACT OF THE CRISIS ON PERSONS AND INSTITUTIONS
General Overview of the Magnitude of the Crisis. The Global Components (PDF)
José T. Raga
Comment (PDF)
Jörg Guido Hülsmann
The Current Crisis: Consequences of Neglecting the Four Key Principles of Catholic Social Doctrine (PDF)
Margaret S. Archer
The Crisis of the ‘World System’ and the Need for a Civil Society (PDF)
Pierpaolo Donati
Comment
The Process of ‘Creative Destruction’ and Subsidiarity: a Response to Professors Archer and Donati (PDF)
Russell Hittinger
La crisis financiera mundial: causas y consecuencias. La dimension moral (PDF)
Belisario Betancur
The Impact of the Global Recession on Developing Countries (PDF)
Paulus Zulu
Comment
Where Do We Stand? The Impact of the Crisis on Persons and Institutions (PDF)
Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista
Financial Crises and the World’s Poor (PDF)
Partha S. Dasgupta
Regulation, Regulators, Controllers and Governments (PDF)
Angelika Nussberger
Comment (PDF)
Janne Haaland Matlary
II. HOW DID WE GET TO THIS POINT? THE DECISIVE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
Réflexions à propos des effets de la crise économique mondiale sur les entités étatiques et les populations (PDF)
Louis Sabourin
Comment
Reflection on Modernity and Relationality (PDF)
Helen Alford
Lessons from the Crisis (PDF)
Hans-Werner Sinn
The Proximate and Remote Causes of a Crisis Foretold: A View from Social Catholic Thought (PDF)
Stefano Zamagni
Comment
‘Good Life’ in Economy and Finance or the Rebirth of the Ethics of Virtues (PDF)
Mario Toso
The Recession and the Family (PDF)
Kevin Ryan
Business Leadership sine specie aeternitatis: Irresponsibility in a Global Space (PDF)
Lubomír Mlcoch
Comments
What to Do Next? A Response to Kevin Ryan (PDF)
Michael Novak
Reply to Lubomír Mlcoch (PDF)
Michael Novak
III. HOW DO WE "REPLAN THE JOURNEY"
What Kind of Regulation? (PDF)
Hans Tietmeyer
Is the Global Authority a Feasible Solution? (PDF)
Herbert Schambeck
Comment (PDF)
Rocco Buttiglione
The Crisis and its Aftermath from the Point of View of the Developing Countries (PDF)
Juan José Llach
The Governance of Globalization: Global Political Authority, Solidarity and Subsidiarity (PDF)
Vittorio Possenti
Comment (PDF)
Hsin-chi Kuan
Comment (PDF)
Hans Zacher
PANEL ON FINANCIAL MATTERS
The Role of Macro-Prudential Oversight and Monetary Policy in Preventing Financial Instability (PDF)
Lucas Papademos
How Do We "Replan the Journey"? (PDF)
Mario Draghi
Aspetti finanziari della crisi e prospettive (PDF)
Ettore Gotti Tedeschi
Personnes et familles dans un contexte d’incertitude (PDF)
Roland Minnerath
Ethics and Economics, or How Much Egoism Does Modern Capitalism Need? Machiavelli’s, Mandeville’s, and Malthus’s New Insight and its Challenge (PDF)
Vittorio Hösle
Comment
Commentary on the Papers: Personal and Family Decisions in a Scenario of Uncertainty and Ethics and Economics: New Considerations for Entrepreneurs (PDF)
Mina Ramirez
PANEL ON THE PRODUCTION SECTOR
The Production Sector (PDF)
Peter Harry Carstensen
Agricolture, Food and Nutrition – Responding to the Crises (PDF)
Joachim von Braun
Automobile Sector (PDF)
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
Family Business in Germany (PDF)
Patrick Adenauer
The Role of the Social Sciences and Higher Education in the Current Economic Crisis (PDF)
Mary Ann Glendon
Related
Crisis in a Global Economy
Plenary Session 30 April-4 May 2010 – Mindful of its responsibility to provide the Holy See with... Read moreThe presentations at the Plenary began with analyses of the nature and causes of the current crisis, and its impact on peoples and communities throughout the world, especially those who were least advantaged even before the recent upheavals. The discussion then moved to what needs to be done to ‘re-plan the journey’ if economic systems are to serve the common good.
Four principal themes emerged from the presentations and discussions:
1. Financialization of the economy and human relations. There was general consensus that the current economic crisis had its roots in the financial sector. The fragility of the economic system was partly due to over-reliance on speculative financial activities separated from productive activity in the real economy. Some speakers also warned of the danger of the ‘financialization’ of human relations, even within the family.
2. A second common theme concerned the toll that economic crisis was taking on poor countries, even though its origin was in the wealthy nations. Some speakers noted that if one compares the cost of the financial bailouts to the amounts needed to provide the world’s poor with basic nutrition, it is evident that the crisis has distracted greatly from urgent questions of development. Others pointed out that meeting basic needs, especially for children, beginning in the womb, makes a decisive contribution to economic productivity.
3. There was also broad consensus on the need for improved methods of regulation with careful attention to the proper roles of governmental entities, private actors and international bodies. A highlight of the Plenary was a session featuring three invited experts on banking: Lucas Papademos of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, Governor of the Bank of Italy, and Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, President of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the ‘Vatican Bank’). Joined by Academicians Hans Tietmeyer, former president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, and Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista, former Minister of Economics in Mexico, this group discussed the need for stronger regulation of international finance, and suggested various concrete measures to assure greater transparency in financial instruments and to avoid the moral hazards arising from bailouts.
4. Finally, the members welcomed the hopeful note sounded by Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo who pointed out that the economic crisis will certainly stimulate the search for much-needed innovations in industry, agriculture and employment to better serve the world’s needs for food, renewable energy, and transportation.
In his summation as the Coordinator of the Plenary, Professor Raga called attention to the responsibilities of educators. Given the pervasive emphasis on materialism and utilitarianism, he said, one can hardly be surprised ‘that in the current crisis, there has been an abundance of cheating and fraud and excessive regard for the short-term coupled with disdain for that which belongs to the long-term’. Looking to the future, he called for cooperation among ‘open-minded people, with the capacity to integrate into working teams and with ability for reflection; people who are convinced that the world is so complex that only with the cooperation of others will we achieve the fruit of our labors; moreover, that only with a joint vision will it be possible to find a solution’.
Mary Ann Glendon
