S1.E18: Sustainable Economics - Part 3: Markets

The explosive growth of this global casino of financial markets is largely as a result of introducing two new games: futures and derivatives trading, beginning in the 1970. Not so long ago, the grave warning of economist John Maynard Keynes echoed loud and clear above the chaotic din of frantic stock market traders: “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely be ill-done”. Modern critic, David Korten who is author of When Corporations Rule the World, calls this phenomenon “de-linking money from value”. He argues that capital is being diverted away from long-term productive investment in the ‘real economy’ in favour of short-term speculative investment in the ‘virtual economy’. It comes as no surprise that those who are grabbing the lion’s share of the benefits from speculative trading are the same ones that have been roaring for greater deregulation of capital flows over the decades. We look at the worrying side effects of speculative trading and deregulated financial markets.