Was it really greed? The market, the crisis and the morality

On 18 November 2009 the fifth Ahrtal Talk took place which was organised by the Sponsors’ Club of the Europäische Akademie and the city of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. The topic was the subject of business ethics: “Was it really greed? The market, the crisis and the morality”. The mayor of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Tappe, welcomed about 80 guests in the Town Hall, before Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Carl Friedrich Gethmann, Director of the Europäische Akademie, introduced into the talk.

In view of the present economic situation it was this crisis which was dealt with and discussed by two speakers: The economist and Professor of Christian societal ethics, Professor Dr. rer. oec. Friedhelm Hengsbach SJ, as well as the economist and Rector of the International Graduate School Zittau (Internationales Hochschulinstitut Zittau), Professor Dr. rer. pol. Albert Löhr, since 2001 chairman of the board of management of the German Network for Business Ethics (Deutsches Netzwerk für Wirtschaftsethik), presented their views in a small talk followed by a discussion with the audience. The moderator of the evening was Gethmann.

As early as in his introductory remarks Gethmann pointed out that individual recriminations could not be blamed for the crisis and that the call for “more ethics in economy” could not overcome the crisis. As far as philosophical ethics were concerned, individual profit seeking was not to be denounced, even if high figures mattered. Not a lacking morality of managers but rather the existing incentives they were aiming their action at were to be criticized. However, changing the systems of incentives was a societal and political task.

In his talk Löhr agreed with this by not criticizing richness as such, but he regarded many a way to richness as problematic. However, a moral rethinking could not be ordained from above: “A new moral fundamental consensus can only be developed from below, from economy and society.”

Hengsbach, too, rejected the reproach of greed as “subjectivistic”. “I cannot hear the word greed any longer”, he quoted – in a consciously provoking way – the former Director of the managing board of the Deutsche Bank Hilmar Kopper. In contrast to this, he presented a number of systematic mistakes in his analysis of the economic crisis. These were, for example, the operating mode of the capital markets influenced by an arbitrary increase (and not by a decrease), the high degree of debts caused by great promises of yield returns as well as the far-reaching limitation of liabilities of corporate enterprises.

The crisis had caused a jerky change in the thinking system which might lead to a political new start inspired by the “Rheinish capitalism” which means that capitalism would have to be made capable of supporting democracy. Each person who made a contribution to value creation in society would have to benefit from this. However, the precondition for this would be a correction of the existing capitalistic allocation rules.

In the second part of this event the audience had the chance to take an active part in the discussion. For example, questions regarding the long-term responsibility of managers in connection with the bonus premium, the neglect of medium-sized enterprises by politicians and the considerable differences between limited-liability companies on the one hand and enterprises with proprietor entrepreneurs on the other were discussed.