It is probably a commonly-held view amongst those with an interest in sustainability that the world's financial system is part of the problem. That may be the end of any consensus, however, as arguments abound about what to do about it, and they are likely to reflect your political standpoint. Revolutionary socialists are likely to differ from social democrats, conservatives and liberals in their analysis and prescriptions. Mind you, I'm not convinced that many people really understand what money has now come to be, and I am one of them. Given that banks can now conjure it up out of thin air, and then charge interest on it, this is a trick that not even quantum physics dares to do. Magic indeed.
That said, maybe we might agree that more transparency and straight-dealing in the tax affairs of international business would be necessary in a sustainable society – that and less reliance on off-shore tax-havens such as Panama and the Cayman Islands, etc. I am, of course, writing in the aftermath of the Panama Papers, a story which was broken here by the Guardian whilst I was away.
The Guardian has to be a mite careful, however, as its owners are not averse to using the odd off-shore company when it suits their tax-saving purposes, as this story illustrates. Oddly, this seems to slip their journalists' collective mind when they write of such abuse by others: Think Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, etc.
Ah, well, more motes and beams and whited sepulchres – time, perhaps, to re-read the ever-reliable Saint Matthew (7:3 - 5). He was, after all, a tax collector, and so knew a bit about human foibles and frailties. All told, I suspect that hypocrisy, like the poor (Matthew 26:11), will always be with us – but where does this leave sustainability?
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