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A Missed Opportunity?

Sara Wolcott | Tuesday 4th August 2009

By now, we should all know that the Chinese character for 'crises' entails both 'danger' and 'opportunity'. And , thus, that the Financial Crisis was an 'opportunity'. An opportunity for what? - there was never consensus.

Besides decent financial regulation, there are several things that I, at least, saw as possible. images-5

Such as ensuring that finance serves society and not the other way around. That includes things such as making sure that we are investing cleanly and with strong green overtones. You know - no new coal plants.

And while there are signs of hope - not least, the recent lawsuit against the Treasury for RSB's use of taxpayer money (via bailout) to continue to investment in 'dirty coal', it's hardly a pretty picture.

In a recent conversation with one of the leading thinkers on sustainable finance in the US, she was disappointed - but hardly surprised - by this lack of action. She said that in times of crises, we often become 'myopic'. This time around, there was no systemic analysis of why the crises happened (certainly not at a national level), and no opportunity to really question what banks and other investors should be doing. Now, even as real lives are being hit by the FC, many in the banking world are almost talking as if business is back to normal... except too much remains unchanged

I fear that claims of 'never again' might not be long silenced before we once again are faced with financial 'insanity' - another 'Crisis' might be just around the corner. How long, how deep, and how expensive this next one will be is impossible to know.

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Sara Wolcott 5 August 2009

I just checked it out - very cool. I'd like to talk with you more about your work, actually - I'm doing some research right now on the interactions between financial crisis and climate change as an opportunity to re-negotiate the social contract (I'm a social scientist) and your organization is really interesting.

Toby Blume 4 August 2009

i couldnt agree more and the tendency to focus on the immediate fallout of the credit crunch means we risk letting the opporunity to fundmentally change things for the better. Vince Cable's reaction to the banking reform white paper was that 'the City will be rubbing their hands with glee...it's return to business as normal'.

It was precisely this thinking that led Urban Forum to develop our proposals for Community Reinvestment to change the way banks operate and ensure there is public benefit from the public bailout. Please support our campaign! you can find out more at: http://jm.ly/9xTkv8

thanks

Toby Blume

Chief Executive, Urban Forum