During and after the financial crisis of 2008 and the following ‘Great Recession’ we have witnessed a strong return of anti-capitalist sentiments and arguments in public media as well as parliaments, sometimes even among economists and market experts. What became visible in those public debates was an intense debate on the legitimacy and/or moral appropriateness of certain forms of financial profits - mostly profits drawn from highly leveraged transactions that consisted of monetary exchange of future expectations that shows high similarity to gambling. Sascha Muennich explores whether such moral debates about more and less morally acceptable ways of profit seeking actually have an impact on the institutions and rules that define different national financial sectors. In short: Is moral outburst against illegitimate financial profits just “cheap talk” in a crisis while “hard” politics is subject only to material interests, or do cultural understandings of a “good salesman” or a “just banker” actually influence how markets are allowed to operate?

Sascha Muennich Visiting Scholar, CES, Harvard University

Sponsors: Boston Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany; CES Special Events

A light reception will follow the discussion.