Peter Dietsch, “Global Finance”, International Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. High LaFollette, Wiley, 2019.

Abstract

Global capital flows have increased in both size and complexity in recent decades. This entry categorizes the ethical questions that global finance raises into three groups. First, to what extent do global financial markets actually deliver on their double promise of facilitating investment and diversifying risk? Conversely, to what extent are they subject to market failures? Second, even if global finance is beneficial in the aggregate, the evidence suggests that the benefits as well as the costs it imposes vary significantly for different actors. What are the distributive dimensions of global financial markets? Third, money is inextricably linked to power. Thus, a comprehensive picture of global finance needs to include an assessment of the role of states. How do states shape, but at the same time depend upon, global financial markets? These three considerations overlap in important ways, but distinguishing them is nonetheless useful to identify different ethical dimensions of global finance.