The Finance 2.0 Manifesto

This is an interesting read from HBR, The Finance 2.0 Manifesto, that provides some colour to the ongoing topic I blogged in Bailing out the Thieves and 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.

I wish I could approach the world with this level of optimism and altruism... no, seriously! I suspect the reality is that the incumbent leaders, both politically and in business, are driven less by these ideals and more by the power they can accumulate and exert (or have to as a result of the deals people make to scale the ladder). BTW - I'm taking the view that money is a derivative of power.

Granted, the current economic turmoil does make one question if the 'invisible hand' theory still applies. Perhaps we've managed to find an industry (financial services) where self-interest doesn't lead to effective self-regulation? [editor's note: re-reading that sentence made me laugh a lot!] At the very least, I think we can all agree there are some financial services practises that need (and are slowly getting) more regulation - practises such as naked short-selling (see SEC Halts Short Selling of Financial Stocks to Protect Investors and Markets and Australian short selling ban goes further than other bourses).

Image by Asif Akbar

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posted by Lee Gale @ 1:30 AM,

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