The Pope on the 'Financialization' of the Economy

Headline of the day from the Washington Post:

Pope Calls for New Economic Structure

You have all been wondering what His Holiness thinks about the financialization of the economy, have you not?

Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding human enterprise... Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for business is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limited in their social value.

I actually think Felix Salmon made a similar point a while back. Perhaps Reuters has readers in the Vatican.

Comments

[Tom Armistead:]

From Caritas in Veritate: "the damaging effects on the real economy of badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing."

The Pope has picked up on the difference between the real economy and financialism, and the harm financialism is doing to millions of people worldwide who are simply trying to earn a living and care for their family.

It would be nice if somebody would look into doing something about it.

Jul 08 06:21 AM

[Paul Bogdanich:]

Like who? They own every politician in both Britian and the US.

Jul 08 10:52 AM

[snagglesnarf:]

The pope sits all day long in a marble palace with million dollar paintings hanging from the walls. What the hell does he know about economics? Sell one painting and he could feed a million of those hungry people he annually nags the wealthy countries to feed.

Jul 08 11:50 AM

[Gregman2:]

You must be jesting. The Pope is fluent in 8 languages, and understands economics better than most scholars. In fact, he is a scholar in a number of subjects. Don't kid yourself.;-)

Jul 08 01:23 PM

[xmplary:]

Why does Pope call for New Economic Structure? Isn't he the one closest to God? Why can't he can make the deal go thru? I think its time for change, I call for a replacement!

Jul 08 01:48 PM

[Tony Petroski:]

Snagglesnarf: Find the movie "The Shoes of the Fisherman." Pope Anthony Quinn commits the Catholic Church to selling all of its assets in order to feed the starving Chinese--how times have changed. The movie ends on that note. It would have been fun to see "The Shoes of the Fisherman II," the one in which, now two weeks later, all the treasures of the Vatican have been sold off, the Communist Party of China having taken milliions pads the pocketbooks of their cronies, the Chinese people still starving, and the Catholic in the church pew no longer contributing in the collection plate. The movie's end is a sensible advisor whispering in the Pope's ear: "Man doesn't live by bread alone." THE END

Jul 08 06:49 PM

[snagglesnarf:]

Yes, Tony, I have seen the movie and it is just that: a movie. I've also seen Soylent Green and I would not advocate that either...yet.



On Jul 08 06:49 PM Tony Petroski wrote:

> Snagglesnarf: Find the movie "The Shoes of the Fisherman." Pope Anthony
> Quinn commits the Catholic Church to selling all of its assets in
> order to feed the starving Chinese--how times have changed. The movie
> ends on that note. It would have been fun to see "The Shoes of the
> Fisherman II," the one in which, now two weeks later, all the treasures
> of the Vatican have been sold off, the Communist Party of China having
> taken milliions pads the pocketbooks of their cronies, the Chinese
> people still starving, and the Catholic in the church pew no longer
> contributing in the collection plate. The movie's end is a sensible
> advisor whispering in the Pope's ear: "Man doesn't live by bread
> alone." THE END

Jul 08 09:39 PM

[bigmoney:]

you think the Pope has seekingalpha articles show up via RSS to his Google Reader?

Jul 08 11:35 PM

[derryl:]

On another article I commented that Catholic social teaching is socialism, but I agree with Benedict about the evils of financialization. Finance capitalism is nothing other than a vast system of taxing the productive economy. On the other hand the institution of banking, which I see as the micromanagement of a people's financial credit (savings and loans), is an indispensable part of a free enterprise economy. But giving bankers power to create and 'lend' money at will is no different than giving bureaucrats the power to tax and spend at will. They benefit. We pay.

Jul 09 04:31 AM

[Tim Miles:]

I have not read the Pope's encyclical, but I appreciate his economic views expressed in the media. What most people don't recognize is that there has always been a movement within Catholicism championed by thinkers and doers like Dorothy Day focused on social justice and concern for the poor. I believe that they are the true followers of Christ. The Pope is only articulating this 2,000-year old message.

Please don't label me a dogmatic Catholic because I do have several areas of disagreement with the Pope and the Church.

Jul 09 07:21 AM

[buoy:]

O Lordy.

Jul 09 05:19 PM