It is nothing new for members of environmental or socialist
movements to call for revisions to the capitalist system…. it is however something
else when the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (see - ICAEW)
does so. The ICAEW is a professional membership organisation, supporting over
138,000 chartered accountants around the world. The highly paid members of
ICAEW provide the financial and business knowledge to support individuals,
organisations and communities in their goals of achieving economic success. The
ICAEW and its accounting members play important roles in ensuring the smooth running
of capitalism – so when they debate changing the capitalist model we should
give them our serious attention.
In the ICAEW members’ magazine, Nicholas Shaxson argues that it is time to create wealth for society
– not for shareholders (“In Step with Society”, Economia, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 41-45). Is the ghost of Karl Marx giving them this direction? And as if this forthright assault on the
holy grail of free enterprise was not enough,
Nicholas goes on to quote from Keynes regarding what is in essence the sine qua non of Modern financial markets – the separation of ownership and operation of
capital:
“But experience is accumulating that remoteness between ownership and operation
is an evil in the relations among men, likely or certain in the long run to set
up strains and enmities which will bring to nought the financial calculation.”
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