The Political Economy and Ethics of Debt Financing

Auteur

Patrick O'Sullivan is Adjunct Professor at the University of Warsaw; Visiting Professor at Università di Parma; Visiting Research Faculty at Thammasat University Business School, Bangkok. He contributes an elective course on Geopolitics and Business annually on the Judge Business School University of Cambridge MBA and has in addition taught on university courses in France, UK, Poland, Estonia, Georgia and Thailand. He has acted as editor for two collected volumes on the ethics of business and of finance and has written numerous articles on business ethics and critical political economy.

Paolo Ricci is Full Professor of Business Administration and Public Accountability in the Department of Political Science, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. He has taught at several universities, including Roma LUMSA, Roma Tre and Sannio University. He coordinated international research projects, and he is a member of numerous editorial committees. He is the author of over 200 scientific publications mainly on issues concerning public sector governance and accountability, responsibility and social reporting.

Texte du rabat

This book takes a fresh look at an age-old controversy in ethics and political economy that stretches right back to Aristotle: the morality and the economics of debt financing, or the charging of interest on loans. It endeavours to show the immense relevance of those ancient debates in the contemporary economy .

Contenu

1. The growing contemporary challenge of indebtedness 2. The morality of the charging of interest on loans: the Ancient and Mediaeval moral philosophical debate 3. Transition of the moral debate to political economy: from Bacon to the contemporary discussions of interest and usury 4. A critical philosophico-economic appraisal of the contemporary consensus on money-lending at interest 56. And what about lending to consumer borrowers? 7. Alternatives to interest-based government borrowing and the implications for sustainability of government debt 8. The impact of the charging of interest on the distribution of wealth 9. A Call to Action in face of the Massive Inertia of Financial Sector Vested Interests Index