24 May 2010

As part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas, Rathbone Greenbank Investments sponsored this event on 24 May at St George's Hall, Bristol.

The suddenness and depth of the recession has raised questions about the workability of capitalism not seen since the 1930s. One of the constraints on recovery is the growing belief that if the old model did not work, while there is no new one on offer. Hutton argued that reconstructing a robust financial system is not just a technical question. It cannot be done without a wholesale revision of the wider system and values on which it is based – and fairness must be placed at the heart of the new capitalism for society’s future well-being.

One of Hutton’s central themes on the evening was the problem of ‘disproportionality’. He explained how the ruthless early settlers to America used the scales of justice to symbolise the centrality of the notion of proportionality. The huge sums earned by hedge fund managers and traders were argued to be disproportionate and it was recommended that these sums should be curtailed for the sake of the public perception of ‘fairness’.

We were pleased to host a good number of clients at this highly informative and thought-provoking event.