ABSTRACT
Looking back from January 2050 much has happened over the last half a century. Many problems still exist—including poverty, inequality and conflict. The price of stability and reasonable equity, for those within the high-values webs, has certainly been high. Social and ethical accounting and auditing developed into a core and essential element of business success. Real-time social reporting became the norm, with stakeholders able to access the underlying social accounts and electronic tools in analysing aspects of companies' behaviour relevant to their own particular interests. The global financial meltdown of 2009 changed all this. It was the so-called 'grey dollar' that finally tipped the applecart. Virtually every major financial institution faced bankruptcy. Governments watched helplessly, tied by the so-called 'Brown Regime' dating to 2003 which had made it illegal for them to intervene in the financial markets. Change seems to have been made up of half-baked solutions to unexpected crises.
