Summary

How should we create wealth in societies, and why is it right and necessary to do so? What improves the lives of the largest number of people? And how do we, living in a globalized world caught in an age of financial and ecological turbulence, respond to the differing needs of individuals and institutions?

In Good Value Stephen Green, Chairman of HSBC, reflects on how the human desires for exploration and exchange have led us into a globalized, urban world, and considers why it is that capitalism is the best system by which to improve material human wealth. As the world's financial order is in a state of flux, how do we align these drives, and capitalism, with our spiritual and psychological needs? And how should the financial sector, in particular, respond not only to the current crisis but to the wider needs of the people it serves. Do businesses - and banks in particular - have a duty to society that goes beyond the creation of profit? Does open market capitalism remain our best hope for creating wealth that benefits all aspects of society? And how can individuals, working in profit-making workplaces and coping with the new pressures of an increasingly urban, connected world, combine their moral, spiritual and ethical selves with their everyday work? Encompassing history, politics, religion and economics, Good Value offers new perspectives on how we can live in a richer, more dynamic world.