On Corporate Greed

Earlier today I drew attention to the announcement of the ASA Globalog series on the financial crisis. The first post in the series is already up. Alexander F. Robertson of Edinburgh University writes about Corporate Greed:

The medieval burghers sought to dodge accusations of greed by political bluster or conspicuous acts of charity, but nothing provided better moral cover than their most successful and durable invention, the corporation.  This transcendent meta-body is no freak of nature, no historical accident.  It was invented by European merchants in the 15th century, along with enough moral latitude to allow great commercial ventures to flourish, and many rogues to prosper.  Chambers’ excellent Dictionary tells us that the corporation is ‘a succession or collection of people authorized by law to act as one individual and regarded as having a separate existence from the people who are its members’.  It allows real people to join forces for private gain, to mask their personal identities, dodge their liabilities, and defy mortality.  Moral ambivalence is intrinsic to the corporation.  It is the framework in which individuals are piously held to account, and yet can get away with almost anything.  Back in the 18th century, an English Lord Chancellor asked:  ‘Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked?’ Continue reading.