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1-Page Summary of The Good Society

Finance: Hero or Villain?

Few people see the field of finance as a way to improve society. In fact, there is a perception that it has caused more harm than good. The public believes that greed and trickery are common in the financial industry, especially after 2008 when the recession occurred. Finance’s main function is to increase wealth for investors and savers, but historically societies have strived for equity and fairness among all classes of people: rich, poor or middle class.

Finance has an important role to play in society. It is a way of organizing and attaining goals that benefit everyone. Finance provides the means for people to achieve their objectives, whether it’s funding for a new business or financing your home. The financial sector can be used more effectively through prudent regulation that takes into account human psychology and greed, which have affected economies throughout history.

The financial industry is often perceived as a monolithic entity. It’s made up of many different people who are not only concerned about profits, but also take care of society’s needs. They must work together to execute important financial goals that help our society to grow and prosper.

Chief Executive Officers

CEOs are responsible for the future of their company. They make sure that it will survive and thrive in the future by working on long-term goals. CEOs should be compensated with stock options, which gives them a financial stake in making sure that the company does well over time. If they do poorly, then they risk losing their jobs because they don’t have enough money to pay for necessities or to support themselves and their families. To avoid this problem, companies need to structure CEO compensation so that if things go badly at the firm, he or she doesn’t get paid as much or loses some income altogether until things turn around again.

Investment Managers, Bankers and Mortgage Lenders

Investment managers provide advice for people who invest in the stock market. In order to be a good investment manager, you need to be honest and diligent with your clients’ money. Investors should judge how well an investment manager manages their funds by looking at the results of his or her investments. Unfortunately, there isn’t much information available about how investment managers perform in terms of investing because they are not required to disclose that information. Commercial banks have a moral obligation to safeguard their customers’ deposits and keep them safe from harm. However, during the Great Depression (1930s), many commercial banks acted like gangsters because they were unregulated and could do whatever they wanted without any consequences; this is why we call those institutions “banks” today instead of “bankers.” Democratizing banking services has been around since 19th-century building societies, but banks still haven’t succeeded in serving everyone equally; one quarter of America’s poorest 20% don’t have bank accounts at all!

Housing is a basic human necessity. The financial system created mortgages to enable people to buy homes. However, securitization of mortgages in recent decades led to speculation and greed instead of furthering the societal imperative by reducing barriers for home ownership. Still, that has also sown the seeds of creative solutions like preplanned workouts or fractional interests, which could be on the horizon.

Traders and Market Makers

To function properly, markets need traders to provide liquidity and prices. With new technology that allows professionals to trade quickly, they are able to deal in a number of instruments. These new trading talents could potentially predict the future with real estate or consumer price predictions so that these predictions can be used by others. This would have revealed market sentiment before 2008 when problems occurred and helped prevent them from happening again.

The Good Society Book Summary, by James K. Galbraith