ABSTRACT
Hitherto, the focus of financial ethics has been mainly on questions concerning the micro- and meso-level of economic interaction, questions that are predominantly discussed in the field of “business ethics.” The business ethicist discusses normative issues arising from commercial activities from a microethical viewpoint. This chapter, on the contrary, intends to stress the importance of financial macroethics. It will be argued that the guiding principle of financial macroethics ought to be that it is of the utmost moral importance to ensure the sustainable efficiency of the financial market. From this perspective, the criterion for the normative analysis of global finance—as well as of each financial market, institution, and instrument—has to be whether it is compatible with the sustainable efficiency of the financial market of each national economy. All fundamental normative orientations and tasks of the macroethics of financial markets derive from this principle, some of which will be discussed in this essay.
