ABSTRACT
The economy consists largely of long-term financing needs. Those with savings, however, would like their precautionary savings to be readily available, and thus have an overall preference for liquid markets. For the financial markets, the utility of a project or company begins and ends with its capacity to produce monetary wealth. Investors tend naturally to gravitate toward high-liquidity markets because it is easier to find a buyer or seller at any given moment. Again, the underlying principle seems fairly sound. Pricing would clearly suffer if investors were routinely unable to quickly find a buyer for their securities, and investors would prefer to leave their money idle under the mattress rather than pour it into assets that contribute to the economy. Positive finance consists of reinjecting social and economic value into the functioning of markets. A number of investors already make decisions based on ethical, social, or environmental criteria.
