On Wednesday, Radio 4 hosted a discussion about the morality of money. One of our senior fellows, Jamie Whyte (previously seen flying the flag for Austrian-style good sense in the BBC’s Keynes v Hayek debate) was on hand to lend his thoughts about moral hazard in banking. In a coup for sound reason, Simon Rose of Save our Savers and a good friend of TCC, was able to stand up for the long-suffering thrifty citizens who didn’t indulge in the profligacy of the boom and who are now being asked to bear the costs of the government-induced credit binge.
You can find the discussion on iPlayer, or listen to the MP3 from the Moral Maze podcast.
“A man is seldom so innocently engaged as when he is after money” Dr Johnson, thinking of what people will do for such things as power or love, compared to what they will do to turn an honest profit.
Of course Dr Johnson was thinking of earning money within the limitations of the common law nonaggression principle (shown, in his own time, to be based upon consent – and, thus, not including slavery [the Mansfield Judgement], theft or fraud).
He was not thinking of “monetary stimulus” or other hopelessly corrupt corporate welfare.
Great quote and well said. Clearly Dr Johnson will now have to be added to my already gigantic reading list.