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Goldman Sachs headquarters, c ourtesy of Wikipedia. GEOG 352: Day 2. “The Inside Job” and Iceland’s Response. Items of Business. Does anyone need a course outline? Please sign in for today Reminder about the Free Store that goes ‘til 2
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Goldman Sachs headquarters, courtesy of Wikipedia GEOG 352: Day 2 “The Inside Job” and Iceland’s Response
Items of Business • Does anyone need a course outline? • Please sign in for today • Reminder about the Free Store that goes ‘til 2 • The course outline is up on the web site and I will get it up on Moodle next time • The instructions are available on the web site (http://web.viu.ca/alexander2 under “Courses”). Go through the list of possible cases (or think of your own) and start thinking about what you will focus on…
Picking Up Where We Left Off • Any questions about any of the terms in the film: “Ponzi scheme”, “Luddite”, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), loans to assets leveraging, or about how the whole structure worked? • Any comments about what we have seen so far? • Questions for you: •has any regulatory regime been in place since? •has anyone on Wall Street gone to jail for what happened or been individually fined? • under what circumstances are individuals liable for the actions of corporations? •can the charters of corporations be revoked for social or ecological irresponsibility? • We can watch the rest or not; it’s entirely up to you.
Picking Up Where We Left Off • The film is relevant to this course on two levels: first, instead of producing products of real value, using traditional factors of production (land or resources, labour and capital), these folks made money through a financial shell game of selling financial “products” where they benefitted enormously and others bore the risks and paid the ultimate costs. • The second level is that in recentyears, commentators, in noting the negative impact of ourcurrenteconomic system on nature and on communities, have proposedgoingbeyond a focus on financial capital to focusing on multiple capitals: natural, social, human, physical, and human. How the economycan serve all of themiswhat this course isall about. • This approachisalsoreflected in talk about a “triple bottom line.”