Newsletter n.166 Verona, 16 Ottobre 2008
LA CRISI NON E’ SOLO FINANZIARIA LA SOLUZIONE NON E’ SOLO FINANZIARIA
LA CRISI NON E’ SOLO FINANZIARIA LA SOLUZIONE NON E’ SOLO FINANZIARIA
Il mercato, anche quello finanziario, ha bisogno di presupposti che esso non sa produrre, come per esempio la fiducia.
La crisi finanziaria in atto mette in evidenza quanto la Dottrina sociale della Chiesa dice da tempo: quando un sistema economico o finanziario entra in crisi non è mai per motivi economici o finanziari, ma perché a monte è avvenuta una ferita al sistema morale globale.
I vescovi di Francia hanno ribadito questo concetto in un recentissimo documento sulla crisi finanziaria. Il desiderio esclusivo del profitto e le scriteriate pratiche speculative non sono in sé atteggiamenti solo economici ma prima di tutto umani. Ed in effetti, se andiamo alle cause principali della crisi attuale, scopriamo che sono a carattere morale prima che finanziario.
Il primo fattore è la concessione di mutui senza garanzie. Si tratta di un azzardo, soprattutto per il motivo finale di queste concessioni: costruire pacchetti finanziari con dentro i mutui-casa da vendere sul mercato. Su quell’azzardo iniziale si è quindi costituita una catena di fondi cosiddetti “tossici”, ossia con dentro prodotti derivati dai mutui casa e quindi privi di sostanza reale in quanto insolvibili. Questi pacchetti finanziari sono talmente poco trasparenti che non solo i compratori dei fondi non potevano sapere cosa c’era nella scatola che comperavano, ma nemmeno le banche a tutt’oggi sanno quanti esse ne abbiano in corpo. Ciò si spiega non solo con la poca trasparenza, ma anche con la catena di vendita di prodotti che non si posseggono ancora ma di cui si ha un titolo di possesso in futuro. Una catena infinita, mossa dalla volontà speculativa e che sempre più si allontana dall’economia reale. A tutto questo si riferiscono i vescovi francesi quando parlano nel loro documento di “desiderio esclusivo del profitto” e di “pratiche speculative”. C’è poi la fiducia. In Borsa tutti tendono a vendere e le banche non si concedono più prestiti l’un l’altra per timore di fallimenti.
La fiducia non è prima di tutto un elemento economico o finanziario, ma un atteggiamento etico. Quando il mercato lo erode non è più in grado di ricostruirlo da solo.
Sostenere l’importanza dell’etica nella finanzia non vuol dire sottostimare i possibili interventi correttivi della forte crisi attuale sia a carattere immediato che a medio e lungo termine. Questi, però, non potranno prescindere dall’impegno a ricostruire un quadro normativo ed una prassi che rispondano anche ad esigenze morali. Non si tratta solo dei fondi “tossici” ma dell’intero sistema che è spesso fine a se stesso e non a servizio dell’economia reale.
Bisognerà anche interrogarsi a fondo su cosa si scambia.
Quando una banca vende un mutuo-casa, vende solo un prodotto finanziario o vende anche un rapporto con una famiglia? Anche una valutazione delle conseguenze negative, infine, richiamano gli imperativi etici, in quanto, come ancora ricordano i vescovi francesi, alla fine saranno i più poveri a pagare il prezzo più salato.
Ciò avverrà quando – ma già sta avvenendo – la crisi finanziaria diventerà crisi economico-produttiva e poi crisi politica.
Stefano Fontana e Giorgio Mion a nome dell’Osservatorio
Newsletter n.166 Verona, 16 October, 2008
THE CRISIS IS NOT ONLY FINANCIALTHE SOLUTION IS NOT ONLY FINANCIAL
The market, including financial dealings, needs premises which it is not able to produce on its own, and one of these is trust. The financial crisis underway highlights what the Social Doctrine of the Church has been saying for some time: when an economic or financial system enters into crisis or melts down, it is never due to economic or financial reasons alone, but because a wound has been inflicted upstream on the global moral system.
The French bishops have reiterated this concept in a very recent document regarding the financial crisis. An exclusive drive for profit at all costs and senseless speculative practices are first and foremost human attitudes before being economic or financial ones. In effect, if we delve into the main causes behind today’s crisis we discover them to be first of all moral, and then financial.
The first factor is the granting of unwarranted mortgages. This is a risk especially due to the final aim of the lenders: construct financial packages that include home-mortgages and offer them for sale on the market. Constructed on this initial risk has therefore been a chain of so-called ‘toxic’ funds that include financial products derived from home-mortgages and hence bereft of any real substance insofar as insolvent. These financial packages are so far from being transparent that not only was it practically impossible for fund brokers to know what was in the ‘box’ they were buying, but not even banks today have any idea how many of them they have on their books. The explanation for this lies not only in the total lack of transparency, but also in the chain-like sale of products purchased on the basis of ‘futures’ and not actual possession; a never-ending chain driven by speculative craving and which moves farther and farther away from the real economy. This is what the French bishops are referring in their document when they speak of “exclusive drive for profit” and “speculative practices”. There is also the factor of trust. Everyone tends to sell on the stock exchange and banks no longer lend money to one another because of a fear of bankruptcies. Trust is not first and foremost an economic or financial element, but rather an ethical attitude. When the marketplace erodes or saps such an element, that marketplace is no longer able to restore it all on its own.
Sustaining the importance of ethics in finance does not mean to underestimate possible corrective measures to redress the current crisis situation, whether said measures are immediate, medium term or long term in nature. Those measures, however, cannot disregard or neglect the commitment to reconstruct a regulatory framework and a ‘praxis’ that also respond to moral requisites. It is a matter not just of ‘toxic’ funds, but of the entire system, which is often an end unto itself and not at the service of the real economy. It will also be necessary to ask some serious questions about what is actually being traded. When a bank sells a home-mortgage, is it selling nothing more than a financial product, or is it also selling a relationship with a real family? Lastly, any evaluation of the negative consequences evokes ethical imperatives, because, as the French bishops recall, the poorest are the ones who end up paying the highest price. This will happen – and it’s already underway – when the financial crisis turns into an economic-productive crisis and then a political crisis.
Stefano Fontana and Giorgio Mion On behalf of the Observatory
Ciò avverrà quando – ma già sta avvenendo – la crisi finanziaria diventerà crisi economico-produttiva e poi crisi politica.
Stefano Fontana e Giorgio Mion a nome dell’Osservatorio
Newsletter n.166 Verona, 16 October, 2008
THE CRISIS IS NOT ONLY FINANCIALTHE SOLUTION IS NOT ONLY FINANCIAL
The market, including financial dealings, needs premises which it is not able to produce on its own, and one of these is trust. The financial crisis underway highlights what the Social Doctrine of the Church has been saying for some time: when an economic or financial system enters into crisis or melts down, it is never due to economic or financial reasons alone, but because a wound has been inflicted upstream on the global moral system.
The French bishops have reiterated this concept in a very recent document regarding the financial crisis. An exclusive drive for profit at all costs and senseless speculative practices are first and foremost human attitudes before being economic or financial ones. In effect, if we delve into the main causes behind today’s crisis we discover them to be first of all moral, and then financial.
The first factor is the granting of unwarranted mortgages. This is a risk especially due to the final aim of the lenders: construct financial packages that include home-mortgages and offer them for sale on the market. Constructed on this initial risk has therefore been a chain of so-called ‘toxic’ funds that include financial products derived from home-mortgages and hence bereft of any real substance insofar as insolvent. These financial packages are so far from being transparent that not only was it practically impossible for fund brokers to know what was in the ‘box’ they were buying, but not even banks today have any idea how many of them they have on their books. The explanation for this lies not only in the total lack of transparency, but also in the chain-like sale of products purchased on the basis of ‘futures’ and not actual possession; a never-ending chain driven by speculative craving and which moves farther and farther away from the real economy. This is what the French bishops are referring in their document when they speak of “exclusive drive for profit” and “speculative practices”. There is also the factor of trust. Everyone tends to sell on the stock exchange and banks no longer lend money to one another because of a fear of bankruptcies. Trust is not first and foremost an economic or financial element, but rather an ethical attitude. When the marketplace erodes or saps such an element, that marketplace is no longer able to restore it all on its own.
Sustaining the importance of ethics in finance does not mean to underestimate possible corrective measures to redress the current crisis situation, whether said measures are immediate, medium term or long term in nature. Those measures, however, cannot disregard or neglect the commitment to reconstruct a regulatory framework and a ‘praxis’ that also respond to moral requisites. It is a matter not just of ‘toxic’ funds, but of the entire system, which is often an end unto itself and not at the service of the real economy. It will also be necessary to ask some serious questions about what is actually being traded. When a bank sells a home-mortgage, is it selling nothing more than a financial product, or is it also selling a relationship with a real family? Lastly, any evaluation of the negative consequences evokes ethical imperatives, because, as the French bishops recall, the poorest are the ones who end up paying the highest price. This will happen – and it’s already underway – when the financial crisis turns into an economic-productive crisis and then a political crisis.
Stefano Fontana and Giorgio Mion On behalf of the Observatory
